Magic: The Gathering Journey for the Truth
by twilighter1228
Summary: At Chestnut High School a group of friends enter a school wide tournament. The name of the game: Magic: The Gathering. All is well in the tournament until an evil force threatens to use magical powers to control not only the earth but a parallel universe.
1. Prologue – Slow Start

Magic The Gathering

Journey for the Truth

_This Fan Fiction is based off of the card game Magic: The Gathering, owned by Wizards of the Coast, with a twist of, Yu-Gi-Oh owned by __Kazuki Takahashi__. I don't own Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. All card referencing is done from my own personal experience, , or the official Magic: The Gathering rules. Any referencing to Yu-Gi-Oh is minimal. I never read the manga and my only knowledge is from the TV._

_So if u can get past this… Sit back… read… and enjoy… ^.^_

_And thanks to my new proof reader for fixing my spell and grammar mistakes_

_I R CANZ SPELZ _

**Prologue – Slow Start**

A silence fell in room C212 as the physics students left for their lunch break. Inside was one small boy packing his books into a stuffed backpack quickly scrounging around to leave for the cafeteria. He finally organized his bag and ran for the door, but slammed his fragile body into another and fell to the ground. The young boy looked up to see a large, scary figure in the entrance of the doorway. The figure was a student who donned a leather jacket and a grunt by each of his shoulders, typical for a school bully.

"Ned… Wurmer?" The large figure asked.

The small boy felt a bead of sweat start on his brow and slowly move to his cheek. "Yes…. How can…", but before he could finish the thug picked him up and pinned him up on the wall to the right of the door. The bully let his two men enter the room so they could get a glimpse of their victim.

"Well Ned", he paused to turn and grin to his grunts, "I hear you are the smartest freshmen here at Chestnut High School."

"Well my GPA is 4.0 and my IQ is…." The brute slammed him hard on the wall.

"That's great… so I'm gonna make a deal for ya." He put Ned on his feet. Ned stumbled and regained his balance. He looked at the three bullies. They looked at him grinning. "Simple as this. You do our homework," the bully put his fist in Ned's face, "or we get to beat you up for the next few years."

Ned stood there looking deeply into the fist as if it was going to give him the answer.

"Refuse? Well this will be fun." The two grunts grabbed Ned by his arms and held him up off the ground again. The leader cracked his knuckles and licked his lips. "I usually start with the face, but since you're so young I'll pound on your chest till you stop breathing."

"Ya know Charles," a voice echoed from the doorway, which made the three bullies turn to look, "if he stops breathing you won't have anyone to do you're homework for you." Another figure emerged from the doorway. His hair was poofy like a small Afro. He wore a red jacket with a black collar, blue jeans, and white shoes. The boy stood in the doorway, arms crossed and glaring at Charles the leader.

"Oh great… Mikey, what the hell do you want?" Charles nodded to the other two and they put Ned on the ground.

"Oh nothing." Mikey began as he walked into the class grabbing Ned and brought him over to the center of the classroom.

"Hey that's our nerd!" Said one of the grunts.

Mikey looked at Ned and leaned down. "Don't worry," he whispered, "these guys won't see it coming." Mikey stood straight up and quickly turned his glare once more to the three, "And now I should ask what you're doing."

Charles chuckled and rubbed his head with his hand. "Oh Mikey," he began changing his voice to one that seemed kind, "we were just asking if the little guy knew the lunch special."

Mikey began to laugh uncontrollably. The gang looked dumbfounded at him. "What's so funny?" The other bully asked.

Mikey rubbed the tears from his eyes, "It's just funny how you guys get stupider every time you get someone to do your homework. If you really knew what was good for you, ya would do it yourself."

Charles was angry and began to yell "Who the hell do you think you are? You want to get your ass kicked along with the kid?"

"Well for one fighting is against the Code of Conduct at this school," Mikey paused lightly pushing Ned back away from him, "and secondly… you couldn't lay one finger on me let alone beat me up."

The thugs started to get angry, "We'll just see!" One of the thugs lunged at Mikey with his fists ready to punch, but Mikey was ready and dodged the hit making the thug ram into the desk behind him.

"GET HIM!"

The three surrounded Mikey and attacked all at once. Though out numbered Mikey quickly assessed the situation and ducked down to roll out of the way. The three could not stop and slammed their heads into each other. Mikey quickly moved towards the door. "So, not only are you stupid, but you also can't fight. Wow you suck." Charles and his gang stood up slowly rubbing their hurt heads. "So the question is what WERE you gonna do to Ned?" Mikey asked with a smile.

Charles looked violently at Mikey. "You forget that fast? We were gonna beat him up unless he did our homework."

Mikey held his hand around his ear to help him hear "I'm sorry," he said with slight sarcasm, "I didn't catch that."

Charles stood up quickly and yelled "We were gonna kick his ass for not doing our homework!"

Mikey smiled widely. "That's all I needed to hear. How about you Mr. Gardener?" Out side of the class emerged a tall man in a navy suite.

Charles squalled like a girl, "Principal Gardener! Sir, how are you this fine day?"

"Charles, I've had enough of you." The principal waved his hand and two other teachers grabbed Charles and the other boys. "Now let's take a trip to my office. Looks like I'll be phoning your parents."

"Damn it all!" Charles yelled as the boys went along with the teachers and their heads held low.

Principal Gardener turned to Mikey, "Thank you Mikey… Charles and his friends have been fairly bad and sneaky these past few months."

"No problem Principal Gardener." Mikey looked at Ned, "And are you okay Ned?"

"Yes…. Thank you very much Mikey," Ned said with a smile, "I hope those boys get what they deserve."

"Oh yeah." Mikey looked out in the hall as Charles and his gang were being dragged away. Mikey ran out into the hallway and yelled down the to them. "Hey Charles!"

Charles and the others turn. "What do you want?" Charles said with a mean look.

"The lunch special you wanted to know… It's tuna salad."


	2. Chapter 1 Time Not Wasted

Magic The Gathering

Journey for the Truth

_This Fan Fiction is based off of the card game Magic: The Gathering, owned by Wizards of the Coast, with a twist of, Yu-Gi-Oh owned by __Kazuki Takahashi__. I don't own Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. All card referencing is done from my own personal experience, , or the official Magic: The Gathering rules. Any referencing to Yu-Gi-Oh is minimal. I never read the manga and my only knowledge is from the TV._

_So if u can get past this… Sit back… read… and enjoy… ^.^_

_And thanks to my new proof reader for fixing my spell and grammar mistakes_

_I R CANZ SPELZ _

**Chapter 1 – Time Not Wasted **

The class of C212 was quiet with no action. The only noise that could be heard was the deep breathing of a boy laying on the table relaxing. Mikey lay there, still as a statue in his own little world. He only moved to scratch his itchy nose, which twitched due to the spring air being full of pollen. He moved his hand to his jacket's zipper and pulled it down to cool off and reveal his phthalo blue shirt. His hand finally made it to his pocket, rummaging around inside for a few seconds to finally find his cell phone. Mikey opened his eyes and phone and looked at the clock. The clock read 12:03.

"12 noon on the dot… that's what I said didn't I? " He said looking at his phone as if it was going to answer his question. "We don't have that long of a period for lunch."

"Maybe if you ate lunch like some people you would be a little late too."

Mikey sat up and turned to the entrance of the room. In the doorway stood another student wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black jeans. His long, lush black hair would make him seem like such a dark and evil creature, but Ian was a kind person and a long time friend and classmate of Mikey.

"Ian… you don't eat either. What took you so long?" Mikey asked as he stood up.

"Had to wait for _someone_ to get her food." Ian entered the room and following him was a small girl a year younger than the two boys. Her blonde hair reached down to the shoulders of her dark purple hoodie and her jeans were tight around her body. She held her small lunch in her hands as he walked passed Ian.

"Sorry, I skipped breakfast and I'm a growing girl." She sat down with her lunch and started to eat her French fries.

"Well excuse me Nessa," Ian started to say in a sarcastic voice, "but I don't eat breakfast."

"I'm sure you're the only one." Nessa said then taking a drink of her water.

Mikey walked over to the squabbling couple, "Ya know Nessa I don't eat breakfast either. It makes me feel sick."

Nessa put the top back on her bottle, "Well then you guys are the weirdos, not me." She waved her bottle like a staff to show her authority.

She put her bottle down and continued to eat her lunch. The two boys sat down at the table. Ian gave Nessa a kiss on the cheek. "But you love a weirdo…. Therefore you yourself are one."

Nessa turned to him, "Yes, but I eat breakfast." She turned away and ate her last French fry and started on the chicken nuggets.

Mikey looked across the table to them. "Well you guys are here, but where the hell is everyone else?" Mikey's eyes moved back and forth between the two. The two looked at each other.

Nessa waved here finger in the air, "I think Riley said she was gonna be a little late because she had to talk to her English teacher about her essay." She bit another nugget.

Ian looked at Mikey, "Sean and Rich were getting lunch. Rich was complaining about how the lines are always so long and Sean high fived me," he paused, "and I think he stole my wallet."

Mikey laughed, "Oh Ian, you don't have a wallet." The three laughed. "Well Jenn said she was going to the library to print things out for her English, so she will be around sooner or later. Best we just relax until they get here." Mikey leaned back and put his arms behind his head for support.

Nessa finished her lunch and plopped her tiny body on to Ian's. Ian gave her a look of fake disgust. She gave him her best pouty face she could muster. Ian caved and wrapped his arms around Nessa and let her lean on his chest. "You're lucky I love you," Ian said.

Nessa giggled and put her head under Ian's chin like a puzzle piece. They fit perfectly together. Ian would tease Nessa by trying to push her away, but Nessa knew his foreplay well and would always either pout or push herself into him for more. Ian was strong both in body and in mind, but no man could resist such a display of love and cuteness.

It was not a long wait till two figures entered the room. One was a short man with a clean hairy face and short, curly black hair to match his beard. His light brown shirt wrapped nicely around his torso and his tan cargos were baggy with full pockets. Around his neck was golden torque in the form of a two-headed dragon. Next to him stood a taller man with a short dark brown beard that covered his svelte face and had hair to match. He wore a dark grey shirt with a robot on it with its arms extended out and under it saying "Even robots need hugs". His pants were also baggy with a small chain ground from his front right pocket to his back butt pocket to connect his wallet and pants together.

Mikey looked at the two, "Yea know Sean I always loved that shirt."

Sean looked down at his shirt and back at Mikey, "Well you know you can get in it anytime."

Rich looked up at Sean, "Was that meant sexually?" He asked with his hand on his chin, pretending to look curious.

"Only if he buys me dinner first." Mikey said as he wiggled his eyebrows.

Sean chuckled, "Well enough acting for one day. So we gonna play or we just gonna talk about first date sex?"

"Well," Ian began, "first date sex is fun. That how I got Vanessa."

Nessa slapped Ian in the back of the head making a loud thump; She glared at him, "Yeah because we didn't actually have our first date till a while after we got together."

Ian rubbed his head in pain, "Still makes my point valid."

Nessa was about yell when Mikey quickly interrupted, "We could start playing, but we are missing two girls."

Rich questioned, "Jenn and Riley?"

Sean wittingly responded, "No Martha and Agatha."

Ian looked towards Rich, "Well he's right…. Who else would we expect."

Rich shrugged and sat down with his lunch, "Last I heard Jenn was in the library and Riley was getting something for an essay."

As Rich finished his sentence a figure quickly dashed into the room. Mikey stood and turned to the blur and braced himself. The figure jumped onto Mikey and hugged him as the feet of the person toughed the ground again. The person cuddling against Mikey was a girl. She was a little shorter then Mikey. She wore bright clothes to show off her happy nature even more and wore a denim jacket over her large breasts.

Mikey grunted and hugged the girl lightly, "Hi Riley."

Riley looked up at Mikey with her big eyes covered with her glasses. "Mikey-san! I missed you!"

Mikey pulled himself out of Riley's grip. "I missed you too…. But you almost slammed me into the sink." He said as he pointed to the sink behind him protruding out of the wall.

Riley's face turned sad, "Sorry… I was just so happy… I got to fix my essay and hand it in."

Nessa laughed, "But almost killing Mikey is a bad thing."

Mikey chuckled a little and looked to Riley, "Yeah come on I only got to survive senior year next year and then you can kill me."

"Well if you kill him who will I get to spend the rest of my life with?" A voice called from the entrance of the class. Everyone turned to the last person who they were waiting for. Her head was covered with curly dirty blonde hair. Her violet shirt covered her chest and her dark jeans hugged her waist. Jenn was classmates with the boys, and she was Mikey's girlfriend. She made her way over to her partner and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "If you died I'd be kinda sad."

Mikey looked to Jenn with a displeased look on his face, "Oh just 'kinda'? Geez I thought I was worth more then that." He took her into his arms and hugged her. "What took you so long? I thought you'd beat Riley."

Jenn turned towards her boyfriend's chest and looked to his face with an annoyed stare. Mikey's face began to turn white thinking that he asked the wrong question, but her expression turned from anger to sadness. "The printers ran out of ink," she put her head onto his chest, "so the librarian made me go to the office to get more, but then they made me go to the supple closest all the way on the other side of the school."

Mikey sighed with relief, "Well did they at least give you something….. like extra credit or free pencils?"

Jenn looked back at Mikey, "No. They said being able to print was the reward."

Rich chimed in, "And this is why the school is corrupt and pure evil!"

Riley made an angry stare at Rich. "This school is bad, but it's better then Sulcroft."

Mikey stepped in, "And besides… it could be worse... We could not have an hour lunch."

Sean chimed in, "Now 20 minutes due to our lateness."

Mikey shrugged and walked over to his bag. He shuffled through it for a few seconds. "Found it!" He pulled out a small red box with the picture of a witch on the front of it dressed in skimpy clothes. He turned to the others and smiled. "Let's play some Magic."


	3. Chapter 2 Lessons to be Learned

Magic The Gathering

Journey for the Truth

_This Fan Fiction is based off of the card game Magic: The Gathering, owned by Wizards of the Coast, with a twist of, Yu-Gi-Oh owned by __Kazuki Takahashi__. I don't own Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. All card referencing is done from my own personal experience, , or the official Magic: The Gathering rules. Any referencing to Yu-Gi-Oh is minimal. I never read the manga and my only knowledge is from the TV._

_So if u can get past this… Sit back… read… and enjoy… ^.^_

_And thanks to my new proof reader for fixing my spell and grammar mistakes_

_I R CANZ SPELZ _

**Chapter 2 – Lessons to be Learned **

Magic The Gathering, a card game that started many years ago. It took skill, knowledge, and a hell of a lot of luck to win a game of Magic, but the game is not easy to play. The group looked at each other and was all ready to play except for one.

Jenn started to speak, "Umm Mikey, remember you have to teach me how to play."

Mikey put his deck on the table and put his hand under his chin in a thinking position. "Well," he started as his eyes stayed shut tight with thought, "we could do a mock battle. Have two people play while the rest explain what's going on." Mikey's eyes opened, "Does that sound good?"

"Sure," Sean agreed, "Once we explain everything we can have some great matches."

"But who will be the two to play?" Riley questioned.

"Mikey's idea," Rich said, "He should be one of them."

"True," Mikey started, "but I'm also one of the one who knows the game like the back of my hand."

"I vote Mikey and Ian," said Nessa, "those two play the best and can surely show off every effect, trick, and rule in one battle."

Ian looked at Nessa with a confused look, "Doubt it. No one deck can have everything thing in it."

"That's not true." Rich argued.

"Okay," Ian corrected himself, "have everything AND be a good deck."

Mikey stood in the middle of the group, "Ok, Ian and I will be the battle dummies."

Mikey looked towards Nessa, "Ness I'm gonna need you to be the veteran outside judge and informer."

Nessa nodded, "No problem."

Ian went over to his bag. He quickly found his deck, a light purple and grey deck with a picture of a female dragon tamer and her pet on the front of it. Mikey and Ian took their decks to a pair of desks perfectly set up next to each other with enough room for the boys to play. The boys pulled their decks out of their boxes. The cards all had the same backing, the logo of Magic: The Gathering on the top of the card. Under the logo were five circles placed in a pentagon shape. The Top circle was a light yellow. The circle in the upper left of the pentagon was green and the opposite side was blue. The lower left circle was red and to the right of that was a black circle.

Jenn looked carefully at the back of the cards. "Does the back mean anything?" She pondered.

Nessa began. "The circles are colors that match the types of mana a player can use."

Again Jenn was puzzled. "Mana?"

Nessa rummaged through her purse. Out of it she pulled five cards. "These are basic lands. A player uses these as a source of mana, or energy, to summon creatures and play other spells."

"Like how a monk pulls the energy from within." Rich commented as he folded his hands in a prayer position.

"Right." Nessa continued, "Each land card can be used for one mana. Each mana has its own color and symbol." Nessa took the first of the five cards. It was a light yellow color with a white sun like symbol on the bottom window of the card. In the upper box was a picture of vast fields. "This is a Plains card. It matches with the top color on the back of the card. It is used to make white mana. Its sometimes hard to tell since on the back of the card it's a light yellow circle and the card itself is light yellow, but I assure you its used for white mana."

Nessa put the Plains card away and showed the rest of the cards. Each basic land had it's own color and name. The green card with the green tree symbol was a Forest card for green mana, Red mana was made by the Mountains card which had a fireball symbol, the blue water drop symbol was the blue mana source called an Islands card, Swamp cards had a black skull which made black mana.

Jenn understood what Nessa explained so far, but still had questions. "So how do you play cards with lands."

Before Nessa could begin Sean began to explain. "Pretty much each card has a mana cost and you need that much mana to play it. To use mana," Sean grabbed one of the land cards and put it on the tabletop straight up, "you tap it to use it and show it has been used." Sean tapped the land card clockwise till it was horizontal. "Tapping is used for a lot of other things like using other cards or attacking with creatures."

Nessa took the card back and put the five lands back in her bag and Jenn looked at the boy's decks on the tables. "So these decks have a land in them?" Jenn questioned.

Riley took the reins this time. She picked up Mikey's deck and fanned it out. It was full of land card and a variety of other cards. "Decks need a good balance of lands and other cards otherwise you'll either get to much mana or none at all."

"If either happens to you it's called mana rape." Rich said making everyone chuckle.

"Yeah," Ian began, "you know it well because it happens to you frequently." Everyone laughed again.

"Yes, but I like it." Rich smiled with a creepy grin.

Riley put Mikey's deck back where it was and Nessa pointed to it. "Lands, when put onto the battlefield, are a permanent. Permanent means that it is in play until someone gets rid of it and a spell is something you play and is still on the stack. The stack is a term for the area and the timing that spells are played because spells stack." Nessa looked at Ian and Mikey, "Ok boys start playing."

The two boys took their decks into their hands. They began to shuffle their decks. After a few seconds they stopped and put their decks back in the spot they were last. The two drew seven cards from the deck and organized their hands.

Sean turned Jenn's attention to Mikey's and Ian's hands. "You start with seven cards and 20 life. If you don't like your hand you can shuffle it back into your deck and take a mulligan, except when you redraw your hand you draw one less card."

"The point of the game is to make you're opponent's life reach 0 by dealing damage with you're creatures and other effects." Nessa said, "You can also make your opponent discard all the cards in their deck somehow. That's called decking out."

"All cards have different effects. All you have to do is read what they do and know key words." Rich pointed to one of the cards in Ian's hand that depicted it's own effect.

"Each player takes a turn. A turn can be divided into steps." Nessa stated.

"Yep." Riley interrupted. She then started to sing a song listing off the steps. "_Untap, upkeep, draw, Main phase, begin combat, declare attack, declare defenders, declare combat, combat damage, second main phase, and end of turn_!" Everyone looked oddly at Riley. Riley blushed slightly, "Sorry… remember I just learned to play. That's how I remember the steps."

Nessa sighed and turned back to Jenn "Other then the off pitched singing Riley is right."

Riley became infuriated, "I WAS ON KEY!"

Before Riley could continue, Sean started to explain the steps to Jenn. "It's simple. The steps almost tell you what to do. Untap is untapping tapped permanents. Upkeep is just a step when effects and abilities of cards activate. Draw is when you draw a card from the deck, which the person who goes first skips the first draw in a one-on-one match. Main phase one is when you can play cards from your hand like permanents and sorceries."

Mikey quickly interrupted Sean, "And there are different types of permanents. Creatures are your main source of offense and defense. When creatures are played they suffer from summoning sickness meaning they can't attack or use their own tap effects until the next turn after they were played. Enchantments attach themselves to the field or a permanent and have special powers. Artifacts are cards that have effects, either tap or just ones that activate at a certain time, and they just stay in play. Sometimes they can even be creatures."

Mikey looked to Ian for him to continue explaining. He cleared his throat and began. "Sorceries and instants are cards that only have effects and leave play right from the stack. The only difference they have is that sorceries can only be played during your main phase. Instants can be played anytime."

"But remember you need mana to play all this stuff and when you run out for the turn you can't play any until next turn." Rich said as he moved his hands around to make mana gestures.

"Anyway," Sean continued after he was interrupted, "Main phase... then your combat phase is when you start attacking with creatures. This phase is just divided into declaring attackers, defenders, and damage phases. After that is your second main phase and then you go to your end turn phase which let's 'at the end of your turn' effects activate and ends your turn and allows the next turn to begin."

While all this information was being told, Jenn was writing everything down because she knew she would need to study a little bit. "Okay…. Okay I'm starting to understand this."

"Well once you watch us play a few times you'll understand for when you start playing." Mikey said looking at his hand with thinker's stare.

"And when will I be able to play?" Jenn asked as she put her notebook down and cuddled up to Mikey.

Mikey laughed, "Once I can make you a good deck you can play." Mikey threw down a forest card. "How about we start?"


	4. Chapter 3 The One They Call Champion

Magic The Gathering

Journey for the Truth

_This Fan Fiction is based off of the card game Magic: The Gathering, owned by Wizards of the Coast, with a twist of, Yu-Gi-Oh owned by __Kazuki Takahashi__. I don't own Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. All card referencing is done from my own personal experience, , or the official Magic: The Gathering rules. Any referencing to Yu-Gi-Oh is minimal. I never read the manga and my only knowledge is from the TV._

_So if u can get past this… Sit back… read… and enjoy… ^.^_

_And thanks to my new proof reader for fixing my spell and grammar mistakes_

_I R CANZ SPELZ _

**Ch. 3 The One They Call Champion **

Jenn had watched the gang play Magic before, but never understood it. This time however was different. She gazed into the eyes of her boyfriend whose hand had not left the table or card. She waited with great anticipation to see what would come next, and after, and even further. This was it. Time to see the real game.

Mikey tapped his forest card to produce mana. He threw a card from his hand down on the table. "I'll play the Essence Warden." The woman in the card was a beautiful woman with long grass like hair waving over her pointed ears and a look on her face that showed wisdom and guidance.

"That's a great creature to start with Mikey." Nessa began. "Now we can show Jenn how creature cards work." Nessa quickly snatched the card from the table and showed it to Jenn. "This is a creature." She put her finger at the top left hand corner of the card. "Starting here is the card's name. It's always important to know what the card is called." She moved her finger to the right. There was a green Forest symbol like that of the Forest card. "This is the cards mana cost. The mana shows how much you need to play the card. A lot of cards have numbers in grey circles where the Mana Cost is. That is called colorless mana and you can use any mana color to pay for it."

Nessa moved her finger to the first window of the card, which had the picture of the Essence Warden. "This is the picture of the card. It gives you an idea of what it looks like you're playing." She then pointed to the second window under the first. "This is the most important part of a card. This is where effects and other card info are put. All cards have these two windows and the second window will always say something important. As you can see the Essence Warden has its own effect."

She tapped on the card. It said "Whenever another creature comes into play you gain 1 life."

Rich sighed, "That ability is very annoying."

"Yeah," Mikey started, "but it always helps."

Nessa took her finger to the bottom right corner of the card. It had large dark numbers divided by a line. "This is the power and toughness of a creature. Power is the number on the left and the toughness is the right. When creatures deal damage to each other they pretty much cross the numbers. An attacking creature's power is subtracted to the toughness of the defending creature. At the same time the defending creature also deals its damage to the creature it blocks, but remember that when you attack you attack the opponent not an individual creature. Unless you have a card effect that says you can."

Mikey took the card from Nessa and put it back on the table. He turned to Nessa, "Maybe if she saw a little more game play it would make more sense."

Sean yelled, "Yeah let's see some action!"

"Take it off!" Rich shouted. Everyone looked funny at Rich. "What?" he replied, "I wanted to see some boob."

Mikey sighed, "Anyway," he looked at his hand carefully and took another card from it. He put it on the table. "I'll also summon Ornithopter." What card he played has a picture of hang glider on it.

Jenn looked puzzled, "Wait, Mikey is out of mana. How did he play that?"

"Cheater!" Rich called out to Mikey.

"Rich," Riley said angrily to Rich, "you're being very obnoxious today."

Rich settled down, "Sorry, I'm just so excited."

"He just can't hide it." Sean said in tune with a grin.

Nessa rolled her eyes, and looked at Jenn once more, "Good eye Jenn. That card is Ornithopter." She pointed to the upper right corner of the card. The Mana Cost read 0. "Since the cost is 0 it costs nothing to play."

"So not only do I gain a life due to Essence Warden's effect, but I also get a defensive creature with flying."

"Flying?" Jenn questioned.

"Flying," Ian began, "is one of the common abilities that many creatures have. Abilities like flying are usually only used for in battle."

"Flying itself means it can only be blocked by creatures with flying." Riley said cheerfully, "Unless another card says otherwise."

"Like Reach." Rich said, "The ability Reach allows a creature block a creature with flying as thought the creature itself had flying."

"See Jenn, there are a lot of words that have definitions that aren't always defined on the card because they are so common, so you have to learn them." Mikey put his hands on the table top, "I'll end my turn here."

"Okay," Ian said as he put his hand on his deck, "my turn."

Ian was about to put the card into his hand when the crowd's game was interrupted by a loud bing.

"Lunch over already?" Mikey asked as he grabbed the cards on the table and put them on the top of his deck. "See. We would of have more time to explain shit to Jenn if you would have just gotten here faster."

"Or if Nessa didn't explain so much." Ian said with a chuckle.

"Hey, I was trying to make sure Jenn got all the information that we could give her."

"That would take us forever." Mikey said slipping his deck into his deck bock. "I'll have to give her some private lesions so she can be caught up with us." He winked to Jenn and smiled.

Jenn smiled and closed her notebook and put her pencil in her pocket. "Thanks everyone for being so understanding and helpful. I promise I'll get the hang of the game soon."

"It's ok Jenn." Riley said giving her a big hug.

"Come on everyone," Mikey said grabbing his bag quickly, "we gotta get to class."

Sean laughed, "Oh it's not like we need Spanish."

"Very true," Ian walked over to the door, "besides I don't think our teacher likes me."

Mikey followed Ian to the door, "Why do you think that?"

Ian shrugged, "I'm not sure. I guess one reason is because she always doesn't give me the homework and gets mad when I ace a test."

Nessa laughed as she grabbed her bag, "Probably because you don't do your homework and you don't study."

"Could be." Ian wondered, "that she just hates how sexy I am."

"Not like she ever got those cobwebs cleaned out since the 80's." Sean said making his way to Ian and Mikey.

Rich covered his mouth while walking slowly over to door, "Dude, don't make me sick."

"Come on we better go." Nessa said to the crowd at the door. The boys left the room while Nessa turned to Riley and Jenn still getting their bags. "Come on ladies or she'll bitch at us for being 10 seconds late." Nessa exited the room.

Riley and Jenn put the book bags on their backs and walked out into the hallway. Jenn turned to Riley, "Wow…. Mikey played two cards on this first turn. That's pretty cool."

Riley laughed, "Well Mikey is known for his talents in the game."

Jenn looked at Riley, "So he's good?"

Riley stopped for a moment. "Mikey is the best out of all of us. Sure Mikey will lose once in a while, but at the least 8 out of 10 times he will win, and in game he can be very aggressive."

Jenn turned in shock, "Mikey? Aggressive?"

Riley nodded. Jenn had always thought of Mikey to be the quiet and held back type. He did no school sports, nor did he have any after school activities. Mikey was an upstanding student in general with average grades and classes, and he always showed his love for his friends and family and never got mad as far as Jenn could see. He always seemed to be a pacifist, and to be aggressively good at a simple thing as a card game seemed to be opposite of his nature.

"But don't worry Mikey is a great sport even when he really gets in the game. We all get like that. Don't worry you'll get into it too."

The girls walked quickly in the hall. Jenn looked to Mikey who was up farther in the hallway. _A side of Mikey I haven't seen yet?,_ she thought_, Sounds like I got more then just cards to learn_.


	5. Chapter 4 Cause For Concern

Magic The Gathering

Journey for the Truth

_This Fan Fiction is based off of the card game Magic: The Gathering, owned by Wizards of the Coast, with a twist of, Yu-Gi-Oh owned by __Kazuki Takahashi__. I don't own Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. All card referencing is done from my own personal experience, , or the official Magic: The Gathering rules. Any referencing to Yu-Gi-Oh is minimal. I never read the manga and my only knowledge is from the TV._

_So if u can get past this… Sit back… read… and enjoy… ^.^_

_And thanks to my new proof reader for fixing my spell and grammar mistakes_

_I R CANZ SPELZ __

**Ch. 4 Cause For Concern **

"Not much of a game huh?" Mikey said to Ian as they settled themselves in their seats.

"Don't worry, we can play later. We always do."

The class was full of students. Mikey and his friends sat far from each other due to their teacher's dislike of their happiness and talking. Though she was able to separate the group as a whole she did not leave them alone. The random computer programming put Ian and Mikey right next to each other at the front of the class. Jenn was at the back of the class within ears reach of Sean and Riley in front of her. Rich was in the middle and would relay messages through the group. The teacher still disliked their secret chats, but she was fed up with all of it and let them do as they pleased.

As the class continued their individual talks the door slammed closed. The room went instantly silent. Mikey and Ian turned their heads from each other and looked up to their teacher. She was a woman in her late twenties. She was somewhat attractive for having a stick body with big fake boobs. Her blonde hair stood atop her frowning face and her glare would make a lion curl into a ball. She walked to the two boys who still looked at her with despair.

"What were you two num skulls talking about?" She asked Ian and Mikey as their faces unfroze.

"Nothing ma'am." Mikey said in his kindest voice.

"Don't give me that shit. You were talking about me behind my back weren't you?"

"No, we were talking about our lunch break." Ian said.

"Fine," Their teacher walked over to the front of the class and turn to face her students, "Oh, Mikey…."

Mikey turn his sight to her, "Yes Ms. Czar?"

"Say 'I am a little bitch' in Spanish." She turned to the window with a devilish smile on her face.

Mikey smiled, "Tu es un poco punta."

Ms. Czar turned quickly changing her smile to a frown. Her eyes grew with fire in them and glared at Mikey, "That is not what I mean Mr. Beleroba."

Mikey looked unknowingly at the ceiling thinking deeply, "Tu es un baka?"

Ms. Czar jumped back, "I am NOT a cow!"

Mikey waved his hands in disagreement, "Sorry, sorry I was combining Japanese with Spanish."

"I'm sure you little brat," She threw her hands on the desk and got into Mikey's face, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't get you suspended for teacher harassment?"

The room was silent for a moment until the loud speakers blared a loud noise. Everyone covered his or her ears from the loud noise. After a few seconds the loud noise went away and a voice came on the speaker.

"Good afternoon students and faculty." It was Principal Garden, "I have a special announcement. We have a special event coming to our school tomorrow, and here to explain it is the founder of the event Simon Avphon."

The speakers made a shuffling noise for a moment. On the speaker the man cleared his throat. "Hello Chestnut High School," the man said in a low voice, "I am Simon Avphon, and I am here to tell you about the event my company is bringing to this school."

"Wonder what stupid thing they are trying to do now," Ian whispered to Mikey, "Shirtless Hockey maybe?"

"Today will start the sign ups for entrance into a school wide Magic: The Gathering tournament."

Ian's eyes grew wide. Mikey laughed, "Well it seems much better than Shirtless Hockey."

"At this moment we are ready for people to sign up for the tournament. So come to the auditorium and sign up if you like Magic."

Mikey stood up quickly, "Alright, now this is my kind of school activity."

As Mikey began getting his school bag and books together Ms. Czar stopped him. "Where do you think you are going? The announcement said starting now. That doesn't mean just get up and go."

"And further more," Principal Gardener added, "teachers must let any and all students to the auditorium for sign ups."

Ms. Czar's face slumped. Mikey put his bag on his back, "You heard the man. Come on guys. Let's vamanos!" he winked to Ms. Czar.

Mikey's friends quickly gathered their things and followed behind Mikey out of the classroom. Ms. Czar sighed with grief, "Those kids are gonna be the death of me."

The gang took an out of the way route to the auditorium, so they could put some books in their lockers. They walked into the hall where the junior's lockers were. Ian grabbed Nessa and took her down the hall as everyone else scattered around the hall. Mikey turned from his locker, saw what his friend was doing and called to him. "Ian, what the hell are you doing?"

"I don't have to go to my locker so I'm gonna take Nessa to her locker."

"You mean have you make out with me around the corner right?"

Ian smiled to his girlfriend, "You know it."

The pair turned the corner. Mikey sighed and then opened his locker. Sean walked up behind him. "Hey, I don't have to go to my locker. Can I go make out with Nessa too?"

Jenn closed her locker, "Did you finish your homework?"

Sean pointed vigorously to Jenn and shouted, "You're not my real mother!"

Mikey slammed his locker, "Do it or no card games after school young man."

"I'll be good." Sean put his head down and his hands in his pockets. The three laughed for a moment. Rich moved to the crowd without his backpack.

Mikey looked puzzled, "Rich, where's your bag?"

Rich pointed to his pants, "Everything I need is in here."

Sean gasped, "Richard, we are in public!"

"I was talking about my pockets Sean."

Riley rubbed the bridge of her nose, "You guys are so creepy."

"Hey Riley don't you need to go to your locker?" Jenn asked.

"And see the love birds without clothes on? Did that once and I don't need to do that again."

Mikey put his bag on his back, "Okay guys lets make sure they aren't getting arrested for indecent behavior."

The group walked down the hall. It took them a minute before they heard giggling. "Oh boy," Sean said with a quick laugh, "that's Nessa."

Sean walked quickly up and speedily turned the corner with his friends right behind him. Ian was sitting on the floor up against the lockers. Nessa was sitting on top of him, and both were fully clothed.

"Well this is disappointing." Sean sighed and walked on the other side of the couple.

"Guys," Mikey said staring decisively at his two friends on the ground, "we don't have all day to sign up for the tournament."

Ian grabbed Nessa and quickly stood up, "You're right!" Ian turned to Nessa, "Did you have to go to your locker at all?"

"No, I just wanted to cuddle."

"Alright guys come on," Jenn said trying to get things in order, "I'm sure we can still get in trouble for just standing here."

The collection of friends made their way down the hallway. The halls were quiet with classes still in session, but you could hear the teachers in the photography department teaching their classes about the F-Stop. Passed the photography classes were the band rooms where you could hear the bad playing of amateur freshmen playing their guitars. They finally made it to the entrance hallway of the school and the entrance of the auditorium.

"So how many people do you think are in here?" Nessa wondered.

"As far as we know, we are the only ones who actually play." Mikey said, "So I'm sure there won't be a lot."

He opened the doors to the auditorium. The loud chatter of people in the auditorium surprised Mikey. The auditorium was full of people making a long line to the stage of the room.

"No freakin' way." Rich said with his jaw hanging low, "No way this many people play."

"Remember," Mikey began, "the Principal said to let anyone out for this sign up, so that would allow people get out of class for no reason." Mikey walked over to what seemed to be the last person in line, "Might as well wait, so we don't have to go back to Czar's class again."

Everyone else agreed. They all walked in line with Mikey and began their wait. The line slowly moved around the large echoing room. The conversations that everyone had continued filling the room with a loud babbling. In this time Mikey thought of something. He turned to Ian behind him, "This is kinda weird."

Ian looked at him, "What the fact that the line is so long? You said it yourself that there are people pretending to play to get out of class."

"Not that." Mikey put his hand on his chin thinking deeply about his idea. "Why at a school? That guy, Simon, right? He could have chose anywhere to have a Magic: the Gathering tournament, why here?"

Ian shrugged, "I don't think there is anything suspicious about it"

Nessa agreed, "Yeah Mikey. This isn't a T.V show where the bad guy tries to pick out the best of us for some supernatural reason."

Mikey shrugged, "Just weird is all."

Jenn grasped Mikey's arm and wrapped around it, "The bigger problem we need to figure out is what do we do about me?"

Mikey laughed, "It's cool I already got a plan."

Jenn looked curiously at Mikey, "Really?"

"Yep, I'll take care of it."

After a long wait the gang finally made it to the desk where they got to sign up with only one more person in front of them. Mikey listened carefully to the conversation.

The man at the desk looked at the next person in line. "Name please."

"Kevin McAbbe." He said pointing at himself with his thumb.

The man looked at his computer and typed his name into it. "Ah yes. Kevin you are a junior student correct?"

"Yes I am."

"Good, now I just need to ask you a question and we can proceed."

"Shoot."

The man at the desk cleared his throat. "If your opponent plays a creature with haste and attacks on the first turn what is your reaction to the attack?"

Kevin stood there with a blank stare. "Ummmmm use a trap card to summon the dark magician?"

The man at the desk looked at him with an angry look. "Okay…. Why don't you follow this man and he'll take you to tournament entry stage."

Kevin smiled thinking he won with his trickery and followed the man to the back of the stage.

"So that's how they weed out the fakes." Mikey said looking back to Ian, "Simple questions."

"Not hard for most of us, though Riley and Rich might be screwed, they don't know everything little thing."

Jenn tugged on Mikey's sleeve, "So what about me?"

"I said I got it covered."

"Next!" The sign up man yelled to Mikey.

"Alright, let's go Jenn." Mikey grabbed Jenn and brought her with him to the desk. "Hello." He said to the man sitting at the desk.

The man raised his brow to Jenn who stayed close to Mikey, "And this is?" Pointing to Jenn.

"This is Jennifer Raybrant. She is just learning how to play. I was hoping she could be an observer in the tournament."

The man thought for a second. "Alright," he finally decided, "but first you have to answer three questions."

"Three?" Mikey said shocked, "Kevin only had to answer one even though he was wrong."

"I knew he was faking, just answer three questions Mr. Beleroba and you and your girlfriend can be in the tournament."

Mikey paused for a second. "Okay, shoot."

The man looked into Mikey's eyes. "You play a creature spell that could end the game, but your opponent plays a counter spell that can't be countered. What do you do?"

Mikey quickly responded, "Depending on the deck I'd probably let him take the creature and wait a turn to bring back the card from my graveyard to replay it."

The man looked at Mikey with stone cold eyes, "Alright, now your opponent has a 1/2 creature with deathtouch out on the field and you have no creatures in play. In your hand you have a creature with shroud that is 1/1 and a 2/2 with haste. You and your opponent have 2 life each. What do you do?"

Mikey thought for a moment, "Okay, I would summon both of them. We have 2 life each right? It's gonna be a good 20 turns in so you must have enough land for a simple 1/1 and a 2/2. But assuming I only have enough for one of them I would go for the 2/2 with haste and attack. The defending player would have no choice but to block. Both creatures would be destroyed, but having the 1/1 with shroud would at least let me have a solid defense for the next turn. "

The man looked at Mikey with a smile, "You're pretty good kid. Now for the final question." Mikey cracked his knuckles and rolled his head around to crack his neck. The man took a deep breath. "Name you're favorite card and everything that is on the card."

Mikey laughed, "Artist and all?"

The man also smiled, "Yes kid. From top to bottom."

Mikey rubbed his neck and turned away from the desk. The man laughed, but Mikey turned back to the desk, "Spore Frog. Mana Cost 1 Forest. Creature – Frog. Sacrifice Spore Frog: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn. _The end of a life is merely the beginning of a thousand more._ Donato Giancola is the artist. Copyright 1993-2000 Wizards of the Coast. Inc 126745."

The man at his table looked at Mikey, gawking at his knowledge. "Alright, you and your girl have entrance in the tournament." The man gave both Mikey and Jenn a laminated pass with the Wizards of the Coast logo on it connected to a string to put around their necks. "Take these passes and go sit over there where the sign says 'Here for Players." He pointed to a section with few people holding the same passes around their neck.

"Thank you my good sir." Mikey nodded and turned to Jenn, "See, no problem." He looked to Ian and gave him a thumbs up, and Ian returned the gesture. Mikey took Jenn's hand and pulled her with him to the reserved section.

"Wow Mikey you did great. You know a lot about Magic." Jenn said smiling at Mikey, but his face had a discontented look. "Is everything okay hun?"

The two made it to their seats. Mikey crossed his arms, "That guy… I've never seen him before."

Jenn looked puzzled, "So I'm sure there are a lot of registers you don't know."

Mikey nodded his head, "It's not that." He looked into the distance for a moment then turned back to Jenn. "He knew my name."


	6. Chapter 5 Thinning the Ranks

Magic The Gathering

Journey for the Truth

_This Fan Fiction is based off of the card game Magic: The Gathering, owned by Wizards of the Coast, with a twist of, Yu-Gi-Oh owned by __Kazuki Takahashi__. I don't own Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. All card referencing is done from my own personal experience, , or the official Magic: The Gathering rules. Any referencing to Yu-Gi-Oh is minimal. I never read the manga and my only knowledge is from the TV._

_So if u can get past this… Sit back… read… and enjoy… ^.^_

Hope you like long chapters filled with monster and such lol

Note: This is reuploaded.. I think I got all the kinks out of it.

**Ch. 5 Thinning the Ranks **

The rest of the interviews for the sign ups went smoothly. Ian and the others were successful in getting their passes. The six players were not the only ones to pass. By the end of the sign ups the reserved section had expanded and held sixteen people in the seats. Seventeen including Jenn who said she would sit on the side lines of all the matches and watch, not only to learn the knowledge needed to play the game, but to learn strategies and skills of other people to help mold her own. The crowd of people sat in their seats talking amongst themselves, friends exchanging funny stories and acquaintance learning more about each other. The best thing about a group like this is that they all had something in common.

The lights in the room dimmed. Everyone became quiet was if a movie were starting. The spot light shot to the center of the stage. From the side walked a middle-aged man with short, spiky black and a narrow face. His shirt touched tightly against this throat and the rest of his torso and arms. His suit was black with a red tinted vest under the jacket. He cleared his throat and looked to his audience.

"Hello," the man said in a rigid voice, "I am Simon Avphon." He bowed to the crowd like a true gentlemen. The crowd looked at him in awe. They looked into his green eyes, which glowed light silver when the light hit them. It both scared them and put them into a gentle state of mind. His elegant manors were something not seen in the little town of Chestnut Hill. "Welcome esteemed players," he pulled a remote out from his inner jacket pocket, "let us get right down to the point."

Simon pressed the button. Behind him a large screen began to drop. It made it to the stages after a few seconds of waiting. On the screen projected a tournament bracket. It had 16 lines leading up to the top. Simon pointed to the screen, "Lucky for us we have and exact number of people for a full tournament. Each of you will pick a number from this bowl." One of Simon's servants placed a bowl covered by a lid on Mikey's lap. The lid had a hole big enough to fit his hand in. "Once you all have you're numbers we will put the numbers into a random generator and that will produce you're opponents."

Mikey pulled a small ball out of the bowl. It was pure blue and had no symbol or number on it. Though puzzled, everyone took a ball from the large bowl. Simon looked to his audience, "Now are you ready?" Simon raised his hands and clapped them together. At that moment the lights turned off and the auditorium was dark. "Now hold your balls in the air."

Ian chuckled, "That's what she said."

In the dark everyone put his or her spheres in the air. The light's turned back on filling the whole room. "Thank you everyone."

One of the people stood up from her seat. She wore light, revealing clothes and her hair was as red as her face. "What was the point of that?" She shouted to Simon, "it was completely pointless."

"On the contrary Ms. Hurn," Simon began, "while in the dark the spheres you hold admit a light that our cameras picked up to make sure their was absolutely no cheating with these numbers."

"First of all It's Harley, Ms. Hurn is my mother," she said with a snippy tone of voice, "second of all, how do you know my name you creeper?"

Simon smirked and lightly laughed, "Harley then. I know the names of all of you. I wouldn't be a good tournament host if I did not know who was participating." Simon put his hand into his jacket pocket. "As for the reason for the secrecy it's really simple." He looked deeply into the crowd. His eyes were serious. "There is a prize for this tournament."

Harley sat back in her seat. Her voice and heavy breathing went silent when she heard the word prize. "So, what's the prize?"

"If you win this tournament," Simon said as he turned to the screen behind him and turned back quickly, "you will receive a full scholarship pass to the college of your dreams."

The crowd gasped with alarm. All the students had been thinking about college whether they were a freshmen or seniors. The cost for not only college itself, but books, dorms, food, transport, and other essentials was absolutely outrageous. The crowd looked at each other. Simon looked to his now drooling audience, "An all expense paid four year college trip. Including food and the other essentials."

Mikey looked at his friends. Each of them had the same look on their face, pure shock. Sean snapped out of his state, "What's the caught?" he asked Simon.

Simon shrugged his shoulders, "I want nothing more then your participation in my tournament. Of course even if you do not win the tournament there will be prizes for you; which I will show you soon."

"Guys." Mikey whispered to his group of friends, "I think he's just doing this to get us hyped up so we will go against each other no matter what."

Everyone nodded their heads, but before Mikey could say another word Simon talked over him. "Is their something you'd like to share Mr. Beleroba?"

Mikey slowly turned to his host. Their eyes met and Mikey felt nothing but dread and a knot in the back of his throat. "No sir." Mikey sat forward in his seat.

Simon took his eyes off of Mikey and looked at out in the distance. "I just want everyone one to do his or her best." Simon said while closing his eyes. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. "Having a prize of great value to everyone will allow you to forget you're friendships and for all of you to become rivals."

Rich tapped on Mikey's shoulder, "I agree with him."

Mikey turned to Rich, "What?"

Riley leaned into the conversation; "Well the point is that when we play each other we don't treat it as a friendly competition. We give each other one-hundred percent."

Simon looked at Mikey again, "Riley is right. I just want you all to play at your best."

Mikey turned back to Simon and grunted, "Ya know popping in on our conversations is kinda creepy."

Simon laughed loudy, "You have yet to see anything yet." Before Mikey could respond the screen behind Simon began to flicker with numbers and letters. "Well," Simon said turning his attention to the screen, "looks like the matches are set up."

Everyone looked to the screen. Under the brackets letters were being formed. The group looked with intent as they waited for their names to be displayed. Lights flashed on the screen until finally the letters formed words. The battles were set. The first match was Mikey against Harley. Match two was Nessa and a girl named Cleo. In the third match was a girl named Rebecca and a boy named Justin. Riley was in the forth-round taking on the girl named Alex, and after that Sean and another unknown boy named Shane would go up against each other in the fifth match. Rich and a girl named Ella and two boys named James and Rob were in the round after that. In the last round were Ian and another boy called Neil.

Simon smiled at his tournament brackets like it was a work of art. "Now," he said in a loud voice, "go, rest, and be ready for tomorrow. In the morning is when we start the tournament."

In a loud roar Harley stood up. "Now wait one damn minute!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, "I wanna get my first match out of the way today!"

Simon looked angrily at the girl, "It's rude to push things faster then they can go. We still need time to register the decks you will be using."

Harley quickly pulled a small dark blue box out of her handbag. "I have my deck right here! Register me now so we can get this show on the road!"

Simon looked to Mikey, "Well, it is your match to. Are you ready to play now?"

Mikey, slightly shocked, answered with a quick yes. Simon clapped his hands together, "Then that settles it, we will have match 1 today."

One of the contestants raised their hand. It was James. "So wait, why are we doing the matches one at a time? We can do all the first round matches in one sitting."

Simon waved his hand in the air signaling one of his men to come to him. "Well James, that is part of everyone's presents." The man made his way to the stage holding two small rectangular boxes. Simon looked at Harley and Mikey, "Both of you bring your decks and I'll explain more."

The two walked up to on the stage only to be taken by two different people to review their decks. The reviewers went over each of their cards to make sure there were no illegal cards not meant for tournaments. After a few moments the reviewers gave thumbs up for both decks. Simon called Mikey and Harley over to him. He gave them each a box, "Now you can have your presents."

Both Mikey and Harley took their box and opened them with curiosity. Inside each box was an oval bracer. It looked to sit comfortably on their arm. The bracer had two slots. One looked to be a place to put a player's deck and the other for a player's graveyard.

Mikey gazed at the object. "Wow, a deck holder. This is awesome."

"Oh, but it not just a deck holder," Simon said to Mikey, "It's called The Magic Holo System."

Harley looked confusingly at Simon, "Holo System?"

Simon chuckled, "The system is voice activated. When you are ready to play just say 'Holo System Activate' then wave your arm in front of you. That will activate the holo table."

Harley went to the far right of the stage and Mikey went to the left. They both placed the Holo System on their arms. Harley wildly waved her arm in the air. "Come on you piece of junk work!" She screamed.

Mikey looked curiously at Harley, "You sure don't know how to listen do you Harley?" He pulled his right arm back to the left side of his face. "Holo System Activate!" The Holo System began flash. Mikey waved his arm in front of him, and in the middle of the motion the system let out a flash of light. In front of Mikey appeared a blue rectangle shape. It floated in the middle of the air horizontally and seemed to be solid. Mikey was amazed, "Wow, what is this thing?"

"That is the Holo Table." Simon said pointing up to the stage's ceiling. Everyone looked up to see an orb suspended in mid air. It had an eye like a camera, which flickered lightly. Simon pointed to the Holo Table itself, "The Holo Table itself is a solid piece of matter able to hold a players cards, but nothing more then 10 pounds. Right now the only place this is in use is your school's auditorium. You'll soon see how it works. Just play your match on the Holo Table."

A blue rectangle appeared in front of Harley, "Well as I am impressed that doesn't change the fact that I want to play my match now."

Simon sneered at Harley, "The Holo System also produces a coin flip projector."

Mikey pointed his arm out, "Coin Flip." He waved his arm up and a holographic coin appeared from in front of him. "Ladies choice," Mikey said to Harley.

Harley pouted, "Bad move Mikey," she pointed her finger out to the coin, "I call tails!"

The holographic coin fell to the stage and showed heads. Harley pouted angrily. Mikey took his deck from its boxes and shuffled it. "Looks like I go first," he said with a smile. After he finished shuffling he put the deck in the deck slot of the Holo System. Mikey looked to Simon, "How about giving the Holo System a better name? Like The Magic Bracer."

Simon thought for a moment. "Okay," he said to Mikey, "These will now be called the Magic Bracers."

Mikey laughed, "Awesome just like something from Final Fantasy."

Harley shuffled her deck and put it into the deck slot in the Bracer. "Alright Mikey let's get it started!"

Mikey drew his seven cards and looked at his hand. "I'm gonna keep my hand."

Harley did the same, but was more dismayed. "I'll take a mulligan." She shuffled her hand back into the deck and drew one less card. She smiled, "Okay, I'm set."

Simon called to a man to come to the stage. He stepped on the stage and went to the back of the stage. Simon moved off the stage to a conferrable seat waiting for him in front of the match. Simon looked to the two players, "This man will be the referee of the match. He will make sure everything goes smoothly."

The referee stood straight in his spot. "This game will be a one-on-one match between Mikey Beleroba and Harley Hurn. This is a standard one round match with all legal cards allowed. The first to get their opponent to reach 0 life or make them deck out is the winner." He turned to Mikey, "Mikey, are you ready?" Mikey nodded. He turned to Harley, "Harley…."

"Would you just get on with it!" Harley snarled.

The referee raised his hands in the air and swung them down. "This match will begin now!"

"Alright," Mikey said looking at his hand and taking a card from in it, "I'll play a Plains."

Mikey put the plains at the bottom of the table. Behind him appeared a larger virtual copy of the Plains. It was the size of Mikey's head and lightly floated almost seven feet in the air. Above the land card was a fraction that read "1/1". The fraction was to show how many lands of that type that player had and how many were tapped at the time.

Mikey put his hand on the table and tapped the plains. He held a creature card out in front of him, "I'll also play the Wall of Hope."

Mikey put the card down above the land card. A ball of white light appeared out of the plains card behind Mikey. The ball of light glided in front of him and formed into a wall made of light as tall as Mikey. It was a light yellow tint and waved softly in place reflecting surfaces on its wrap.

Mikey looked to Simon, "This technology is magnificent Simon."

Simon nodded, "Thank you Mikey"

Harley stomped on the ground, "Alright come on is that you're turn?"

Mikey sighed, "Wall of Hope is a 0/3 that whenever damage is dealt to it I gain that much life." He shook his head with dismay, "Figured you would want to know that, but yes Harley, that is the end of my turn."

Harley drew a card from her deck, "It's about time." She looked over her hand a few times. "Okay," she pulled a card from her hand threw it to the table, "I'll play and Island and summon Oona's Gatewarden. It's a 2/1 faerie with flying, defender and wither."

Harley played a card with mixed colors. It was both black and blue. The blue ball of light from her island turned into a faerie no bigger then Harley's hand. It's clear blue wings let a blue light bounce from them to the ground. Her body was a light blue and her armor was a dark pink with black strips. The sword she held had a thin blade and a long hilt. The small faerie flew around in front of Harley holding the sword in front of her skinny body for defense.

Harley smiled, "My defense is better then yours." Harley cackled then looked at her hand. "I'll end my turn here."

In the audience Jenn looked to the battle with wonder. She turned to Nessa who was the closest to her. "Hey Nessa. Those abilities, what do they mean?"

Nessa looked closely at the creatures on the staged. "Both creatures have defender which means they are not allowed to attack. Only defend. The faerie also has flying which we went over already. Wither is ability that when that creature deals damage to another creature the damage is turned into -1/-1 counters, which decrease the opposing creatures power and toughness by 1 each."

Jenn nodded, "Okay, so counters are bad?"

"Not all the time," Ian said looking away from the match, "Counters can either be plus, minus, or special."

Rich come up from behind Jenn and rested his chin on the back of the chair, "Plus counters give creatures strength and minus take it away."

"Special counters usual have their own effects and such. They are usually depicted by a card's effect. That's what makes them special." Nessa smiled and looked to the match. "Now let's see what Mikey does."

Mikey looked at Holo Table. He untapped his land and drew a card from his deck. "Alright," he said tapping his plains and throwing another land down on the table tapped, "I'll play a Rupture Spire." A land card appeared behind Mikey. The land picture itself was based on a molten plain and in the middle was a tall metal tower. Both of Mikey's lands became tapped. "Rupture Spire is a special land that comes into play tapped and also forces me to pay 1 mana to keep in play, but after that I can tap it for any color of mana." Mikey crossed his arms, "With that I'll end my turn."

"Then I'll untap and draw," Harley said as she did just that. She threw a swamp on the table and tabled her lands. "I'll play Surveilling Sprite." Her mana come out of her lands and formed into her faerie. The faerie had the face of a child and beautiful wings like a butterfly. His white cap and brown trousers made him looked like a poor boy. "My sprite has flying and when it goes to the graveyard from play I can draw a card. And that will end my turn."

Mikey examined Harley's creatures, "So, you like faeries?" her asked her.

"Faeries are majestic creatures that are beautiful in both mind and body." Harley said moving her body in a rhythmic motion.

Mikey looked to Harley with a curious look. "I didn't even know you were a Magic player."

Harley frowning face turned into a devilish smirk. "It's funny," she began, "everyone in my math class thought the same thing when I stood up and left the classroom." He eyes became narrow with anger, "They also thought I couldn't be as smart as I am beautiful."

Mikey stopped for a second then waved his arms in a worrying gesture, "No, no, no. I meant I just wasn't aware you played. I wasn't saying…."

Before Mikey could finish Harley started to shout, "Don't screw with me! You and everyone think I am a ditzy cheerleader who wears skimpy clothes and has sex with Football players."

In the audience Rich whispered to Ian, "I did." The two boys laughed and Riley smacked them both on the back of their head.

Harley clenched her free hand in anger. "I have straight A's. Maybe a B here and there. I'm an intelligent woman! And to prove it I will win this tournament and use the scholarship to go to a great Science school. I'll become a scientist and prove to everyone how smart I am."

Mikey rubbed his head, "Harley, I believe you." Her face became less tense. Mikey looked into Harley's eyes. "I remember when we have English together." Mikey closes his eyes to remember their class. He pictured Harley with her hand always raised to get the teachers attention. "You answered way more questions then I ever could." Harley's eye began to get misty. Mikey nodded, "I have noticed your intelligence and im sure others have to. And besides you have to be intelligent to play thing game." Mikey gave her a thumbs up, "But don't let anyone else's thoughts get in the way of your happiness."

Harley rubbed her eyes. For the first time in the whole match she smiled sincerely. "Thanks Mikey, but don't expect it to be easy. My faeries have one hell of a bite to them."

Mikey smiled and drew a card from his deck, "I expect nothing less Harley."

The crowd was in awe after that heartwarming speech. Jenn looked back to Riley, "Didn't you say my got aggressive in games?"

Riley looked at Jenn, "Yeah, well…."

Nessa interrupted, "Mikey always wants a match to be good. So if something is wrong with the opponent he tries to help fix the problem." Jenn understood Nessa and nodded. Nessa smiled and nodded herself, "He's helped me a lot of times through some problems. It's like he can sense when someone has a problem."

Ian laughed, "We'll with you it's just so easy to tell."

As Nessa was about to flick Ian, Sean snapped his fingers together to draw the attention of his friends to him, "That's right, I was having some problems one day and when I was alone with Mikey he made the situation much better."

Rich nodded, "Yep, it's like Mikey is a healer of the soul."

Nessa looked back at Jenn and chuckled, "Mikey really does help us out a lot. Even with the little things. And its not often he asks for something in return."

Jenn agreed, "It's true,." She closed her eyes, _He's always there for me I never think he helps anyone else_.

Rich pointed to Mikey, "Ok, now let's see what Mikey can do."

Mikey had already drawn his card and placed a Forest on the table. He tapped all of his mana, which made three glowing mana spheres to appear from the tapped land cards behind Mikey. One was White, one green, and the other was completely clear. "Okay," Mikey said revealing multicolored card from his hand. "I'll use my Rupture Spire to produce blue mana and summon my Winged Coatl from my hand."

The card hit the table. The mana behind Mikey moved around. The clear mana sphere turned blue and combined with the others. A bright light shown and out of it formed the Winged Coatl. It was a large red snake with wings like that of an angel. It flew over the stage looking down on Harley's creatures.

Mikey crossed his arms. "Now I have flying defense. It's a 1/1 with flash, flying, and deathtouch. The flash doesn't matter at this point, but the deathtouch does."

Nessa turned to Jenn, "Flash means it can be played from your hand and time you can play an instant."

Jenn scratched her had, "So whenever you want?"

"Exactly!" Rich exclaimed. "And deathtouch is an effect that whenever that creature deals damage to a creature it is destroyed instantly no matter what the opponents toughness is."

Jenn looked to Harley as she drew a card from her deck. "Now Mikey has flying defense." Jenn said excitingly.

Ian clapped lightly, "Awesome Jenn, you starting to learn quick."

Harley looked at her hand and disliked what she saw. She took another Island card and put it into play. Her sight turned to Mikey. "Now I'll attack you with my Surveilling Sprite!" She put her hand on her the card and tapped it. The Sprite moved up in the air.

Mikey looked at his table and field. He turned to Harley. "I'll take the damage." He said. The faerie dove down from it's spot in the air. It clenched it's fist and punched Mikey. Reacting to something so real, Mikey crossed his arms in front of his head. The faerie went back to its position near Harley and Mikey released his tensed arms. "Wow," he began, "That almost looked like it was gonna hurt. I think I even felt something against my skin."

Simon, who was entertained by the battle laughed, "Yes, the Holo System gives the holograms enough physical texture to seem almost real."

Jenn looked in awe at her boyfriend. She began to become angry, "Wait, What? Mikey had flying defense. Why didn't he block?"

Sean patted her on the shoulder to calm her down, "It's okay, its part of the plan."

Jenn looked at Sean confused, "Plan?"

Rich agreed, "Mikey only had that creature with deathtouch in his deck."

"Yeah," Ian agreed, "the coatl is more of a scare tactic and is also used to kill a strong attacker. That's why it has flash."

Sean laughed, "Yeah creatures have summoning sickness which means they can't tap, but it doesn't say you can't use them to block."

"Oh I get it now," Jenn said, "But now Mikey is down one life." Two sets of numbers appeared over the stage. Both said 20, but the only on Mikey's side lowered to 19. Jenn sighed, "so right now Mikey's coatl is useless."

Ian smiled at Jenn, "I know Mikey, and just you wait."

Under the stage lights Mikey breathed deeply as he drew his next card. He took the card he just drew a card and threw it to the table. "I'll play another Plains." He tapped another three man and took another card from his hand. He put the card into play. "I'll play and equipped Blinding Powder on my Coatl."

The mana took itself from the tapped lands and formed into a small gray container. The coatl took the bottle into it's mouth and flew back to it's original spot. Harley looked at the coatl and gasped. "What does that do?"

Mikey smiled, "I just have to unequipped the powder from my coatl and it prevents all damage dealt to it this turn."

Ian snapped his fingers and pointed at the flying snake. "That's our Mikey."

Sean nodded with happiness, "That's right I forgot about that card." He turned to Jenn, "The powder will allow his coatl not to take damage when it blocks. So now Mikey can block any of her playing creatures and not lose his coatl."

Riley clapped joyfully, "Yay! Go Mikey-san!"

Harley frowned at the situation in front of her. She took her draw phase and played a swamp on her main phase. "Okay, fine. I'll summon Dream Thief"

Three mana spheres joined together and formed into a faerie. It was a cute little sprite with long pointy ears and a young face. A blue mist covered her lower body and slowly puffed down from the bottom.

Harley pointed at Mikey, "Now I'll attack with my sprite again!"

Surveilling Sprite flew high in the air once again. Mikey laughed, "Okay, I'll block with my Coatl and remove the blinding powder from my creature, so it takes no damage."

Mikey's coatl flew in the air horizontal to her sprite. The snake hissed with it's mouth filled with the bottle, and the Surveilling Sprite looked at the flying snake with dismay. Both creatures lunged at each other. Before they made contact the coatl opened the container and splashed a gold and red powder in the air. The powder swarmed around the faerie and it started to chock. The Winged Coatl swooped in and bit the sprite on its arm. The sprite flinched and dropped to the ground. After a moment the Surveilling Sprite's body started to turn to fade away and disappear. Mikey's coatl flew back to it's original spot near Mikey.

Harley scratched her nose with her thumb, "Sacrifices must be made," she put her hand on her deck, "because when my Surveilling Sprite goes to the graveyard from play I get to draw a card." She drew her card and put it into her hand. "I'll end my turn there."

Mikey nodded as he untapped his cards and drew. "Pretty smart Harley," Mikey put his fifth land into play, a Island and tapped it, "I'll reequipped the blinding powder to my coatl." As he put the equipment card back on his card on the table the holograms followed the same action. Mikey tapped two more mana, one of them being a forest, and took another card from his hand. "I'll summon Utopia Tree." The card fell to the table and the mana flew down to the stage turning into a seed. The seed quickly sprouted and grow rapidly into a tree. It's leaves were a light green and it had rainbow colored fruit. "This creature can produce any color mana when I tap it." I'll also play another equipment. This one costs 0." He put another card on the table, "Paradise Mantle." The Paradise Mantle was a beautiful cape like object. It was made of feathers, which glowed all the colors of the rainbow. "And now I'll equip it to my Wall of Hope." The mantel floated over to the wall and was draped atop it. "That will end my turn."

Jenn crossed her arms and frowned, "Mikey hasn't attacked once. Why?"

Rich sighed, "That's Mikey's strategy with that deck. Make a defense that can't be breached. Then when the time is right," Rich smacked his hand together, "Bam! He beats your ass and there is no way you can stop it or weaken him."

Harley looked at here hand then after a small pause drew a card from her deck. She looked at the card and was happy to see what she drew. She tapped four lands and placed it on the table. "I play Faerie Swarm."

The mana combined into another ball. After a second the ball began to spite. It completely fell apart and half a dozen faeries appeared. They all were the same. They had red bodies and red wings, and wore a darker red pants.

Harley counted, "My swarm's power and toughness are equal two the number of blue permanents are control. I count 3. It counts itself, my Dream Thief, and Oona's Gatewarden." She relaxed her body and sighed. "That will do it for my turn."

"Okay," Mikey tapped his Utopia Tree, "I'll use my tree to make green mana and use the instant Worldly Tutor." Mikey played the instant and put it on the table. On the field the card appeared. It had a picture of an old man holding a gem in his hands. "With this card I can search my library for a creature and put it on the top of my deck after I shuffle my library." Mikey took his deck and looked throw it. He found the card, shuffled his deck, and put the card he searched for on top of his deck.

He untapped and drew his next card that was the card he used Worldly tutor on. He played a land from his hand, a forest, and tapped 6 lands. "6 mana. Two of them being forests." The mana spheres appeared from behind Mikey and floated gently behind him. He took the last card in his hand and put it into play. "I summon Rhox!"

The mana gathered together. Once they were combined they began to expand. It took shape into a four-legged beast. It's skin was a light green and it's face had a long horn coming out of nose. The beast stomped it's feet on the stage making the room rumble. It was a giant rhino that snarled and shook it's head in anticipation for battle.

Mikey looked at Rhox in wonder. His eyes grow big in amazement. Next to Spore Frog, Rhox was his favorite and first creature card. "Rhox is a 5/5 that can regenerate for 3 mana. And when he attacks his damage goes through to you even if you block it. I'll end my turn there."

Harley gazed at the rhino sighed, "So that's what you do. Defend yourself till you get your strongest creatures." She draw a card, "Well you're not the only one with strategies and plans." She placed and island into play. She tapped her swamp and played an instant from her hand. It was black and it showed a goblin type creature being couched by a cloud of smoke coming from a faerie it had captured. "I play Peppersmoke, which gives a creature -1/-1 until end of turn and if I control a faerie I draw a card." She drew her extra card and pointed at Mikey's Coatl, "And the target your coatl for the -1/-1."

A cloud of dust surrounded the winged snake. It dropped the bottle of blinding powder and began to choke. After a second it fell to the ground and the hologram shattered.

Jenn blinked widely, "Why didn't Mikey just use the powder to save his creature?"

Ian nodded, "It would work if it was damage." He looked at Jenn, "The -1/-1 effect is not damage, and it's an effect that decreases the stats of a creature. And once a creatures toughness reaches 0 it is automatically put into the graveyard."

Jenn looked, worryingly at Mikey, "How's he gonna get out of this one?"

Riley laughed, "Trust me, Mikey's been through worst."

Harley laughed as she tapped the rest of her land, "I'll summon Silvergill Douser and Wind Dancer."

The four mana spheres paired up and created two masses. One was a group of three small faerie girls with purple hair. The other became a black and tan faerie that looked more like a fish then anything. Both waited in their spots for commands.

Harley tapped the Faerie Swarm card shouted to the hologram, "Okay Faerie Swarm attack Mikey!" The Swarm gathered together and flew to Mikey, "With my two new faeries my creature is now a 5/5 with flying. And without your snake thingy… You can't block the attack." The Swarm of faeries tackled Mikey. He tipped back, but regained his stance. The life total above him was reduced from 19 to 14. Harley laughed. "I'll end My turn there."

Mikey laughed while Harley looked at him with wide eyes. Mikey smiled, "This is a great match." He drew his card, "Now it's time to get serious." He tapped his island and placed a sorcery card from his hand. It showed a hand in the foreground and three moons in the background. Each moon was in a different phase of the moon. "I'll play Ponder. This lets me look at the top three cards of my deck, put them back in any order, and draw one card." Mikey looked at those cards and smiled. He put them in his order and put them on top of the deck, then drew a card. He tapped his spire and two plains, and put his new card into play. "I'll play Wall of Denial."

The spheres joined together and rushed to the ground. It expanded out and grew to form a clear blue wall with forms of hands designing it. "Wall of Denial is a 0/8 with Defender, flying, and shroud, which will stop you from targeting it with spells and abilities." Mikey tapped Rhox, "It's time," he clenched his fist and pointed it at Harley, "Rhox attack Harley."

Harley held out her hand, "Hold it, I'll use my Silvergill's effect. By tapping it I can reduce your creatures power by the amount of faeries I control."

Mikey laughed, "You forget the rules already. It doesn't have haste you have to wait a whole round after it's been played to tap it."

Harley gasped in disbelief, "Oh crap… I forgot."

Rhox snarled and charged at Harley full force and rammed into her. Above her, Harley's life total dropped to 15.

Jenn cheered in the her chair, "Alright Mikey!"

Sean nodded his head, "See that's the Mikey we know and love."

Jenn laughed and pointed at herself, "Yeah, but I love him more."

Sean looked at Jenn, "I don't know. It's pretty close."

Nessa laughed, "Okay, we all can love Mikey equally. For now let's cheer him on."

"Let's go TEAM!" Rich exclaimed.

Riley shook her head, "Team what?"

From the stage Mikey looked at his friends, "Team Puma of course!"

Riley looked blankly at Mikey, "Puma?"

Sean laughed, "Old Joke from English class. Class project about pumas."

"Why would you have to do a class project on pumas?" Rich questioned.

Sean shook his head, "Hell if I know, Shullman was a crazy old bat."

Up on the stage Harley began laughing, "I remember that project. Our group had koalas."

Mikey nodded, "Yeah, but I digress, and end my turn."

Harley stopped chuckling and drew here card. "Well you may have a creature I can't use my effects on, so I'll just have to use effects on my creatures." She tapped 3 lands and played a card. The mana turned into yellow clothes that rapped around her Faerie Swarm. "I play the enchantment Travelers Cloak. I should a land type and this creature gains the chosen land types landwalk." She looked at Mikey's land. "I'll pick your plains." The yellow cloaks gained slight tint of white. "And don't forget my enchantment is a permanent to, so my Swarm is now a 6/6." Harley glared at Mikey. "Now I'll attack with my swarm." The swarm once attacked Mikey this time bringing his life total down to 8.

Mikey shook it off and drew his card. He smiled and tapped all his mana and his wall and tree that could produce mana. "Remember when you said 'I was holding out for my stronger creatures'?"

Harley stared at Mikey, "Yeah, so?"

Mikey played the card he drew, "You were right. I summon Akroma, Angel of Wrath!" All the mana Mikey had produced forced into one being. It was a female angel with long purple hair and golden armor. She wielded a large broad sword and looked down from high in the air. "Akroma is a hell of a creature. Haste, first strike, flying, trample, protection from black and red and vigilance."

Jenn counted with her fingers, "Wait, wait, wait…"

Ian stopped her and raised his hand, "I know this card all to well." He put his fingers up and wiggled them to show how many effects there were. "Haste means its can attack right away. Flying means creatures with flying can only block it. First strike means it deals it's damage before the creature or creatures blocking it. Trample means any damage not blocked from the opposing creatures goes to the opponents themselves. Protection means that it can't be enchanted, effects, damaged, or blocked by those others. Lastly vigilance makes it so it doesn't tap when it attacks."

Jenn looked widely at the angel. "Wow, seven effects. That things beast."

Nessa nodded, "One of Mikey's deck stars and ace in the hole. Akroma has helped him in many games."

Mikey tapped Rhox and put Akroma forward to show he was attacking with her. "I'll attack with both of them."

Harley quickly tapped her Silvergill, "I'll decrease you're Rhox's power by 5 because that's how many faeries I control." Her Silvergill moved it's hands in a waving motion and produced water in front of itself. It stopped waving it's hands and clapped them. The water rushed towards the charging Rhox and hit him. Rhox began to slow down until eventually the water over took him and pushed him back. Akroma however made her way to Harley, lifted her sword, and swung it at her. Harley flinched and her life was brought down to 9.

Mikey's creatures returned to his side. "I'll end my turn." He said folding his arms.

Harley laughed, "Ya know even with your angel, if this game stays exactly the same I will win."

Mikey returned the grin, "I know."

Harley drew here card, "Well I guess I should make sure that last card you pondered isn't anything important." She tapped an island and put her new card into play. The hologram of the card showed a picture of a man pointing in a large book. Mikey's face grew pale. Harley laughed, "I play Tome Scour. This forces you to put the top 5 cards of your library into your graveyard."

Mikey gasped, "Oh crap." He unwillingly took the top five cards and tossed them into his grave. _The next card I had set with ponder was Path of Exile which would have removed one of her creature from the game. Now what do I do?_

Harley's grin reached her ears as she called out for her swarm to attack Mikey. With the cloak giving the creature plainswalk. Mikey couldn't defend against it. His life total dropped from 8 to 2.

Mikey stumbled back to an upright pose. Harley gracefully bowed, "It was fun, but next turn it's over."

The audience was on the edge of their seats. Could Mikey lose? This thought raced through his friend's heads. Jenn looked at her boyfriend who seemed to be looking down at the stage in disappointment. She swallowed deeply, "Is Mikey gonna lose?"

"No." Ian's voice was rough with anticipation. Everyone looked at Ian. His eyes looked on the stage with an intent look. "I know Mikey. He's forming a plan as we speak." Everyone turned their eyes to Mikey who put his hand on his deck ready to draw. Ian smiled, "He's in a deep state of thought. I know it."

Mikey slowly started pulling the top card of his deck.

_Big money, big money. no whammies, no whammies, STOP!_

He took the card passed his chest and up way from him. Mikey sighed and look at his card. He took his two attacking creatures and readied them. "I'll attack with Akroma and Rhox!" The angel and the rhino charged to Harley at a face speed.

Harley reacted quickly, "When will you learn, I'll tap my Silvergill to decrease Rhox's power."

Mikey smiled, "Gotcha!" Mikey tapped three mana, a forest, plains, and his spire, and threw the card down on the table. The clear sphere produced from the spire turned red as all three combined into a card. The card was multicolored and had a picture of some kind of jewel flashing the three colors used to make it.

Harley gasped loudly, "What is that?"

Mikey smiled, "This is Naya Charm. This card has three effects, but so I don't bore you I'll just tell you the one I'm using." Mikey pointed at Harley's faeries, "Before you activate your Silvergill's effect I'll use Naya Charm to tap all of your creatures."

Harley gasped, "No that means not only do I not have my Silvergill, but I don't have my other faeries to defend me!"

The large holographic card in front of Mikey produced a hand-sized gem that glowed red, white, and green. The gem's light showed down on the faeries on Harley's field. The all struggled to stay afloat in the air, but the power of Naya Charm forced them to kneel down on the stage. Above them jumped a large, charging Rhox and a diving Akroma. Rhox took his horn, and Akroma took her blade. Both bombarded Harley for a combined 11 damage. More then enough to bring her 9 life points to 0.

The referee looked at Harley, "Harley's life total has reached 0. The winner of this match is Mikey!"

The crowd sat quietly as the stage light's dimmed and the holograms disappeared. All that they could see was Harley sitting on the ground and Mikey standing in triumph. After a few seconds of utter shock and silence the crowd started to clap. Whistling blew out and cheers grew.

"Mikey won?"

"That was awesome!"

"Go Mikey!"

Everyone cheered for Mikey. He looked at them all. His friends cheered the loudest. Ian called out, "Ya had me scared there for a minute Mikey."

Mikey put his thumb up in the air, "Oh come on, you should know better." Mikey's smile vanished when he heard a small whimper coming from where Harley had dropped. She sat on the ground with her eyes covered in tears and a few cards lying around her.

"Damn it all! If only I had put those counter spells in my deck this would have never had happened!" She wiped her eyes and looked up. She saw in front of her Mikey's hand being held out for her to grab onto and his face smiling. She turned from Mikey quickly, "I don't need your help."

"It was a great match Harley." Mikey said as Harley's face became shocked, "You had me on the run, but luckily I was able to get my cards out quickly." Harley looked at Mikey with her eyes still misty. Mikey continued, "I never saw someone use faeries so well before. I was wowed."

Harley extended her hand to Mikey's and grabbed on. "Then you better show me some strategies. I'm always short on mana."

Mikey laughed lightly and nodded, "No problem."

Mikey pulled Harley off the stage. They turned to walk off the stage, but before they could Simon, who was quiet through most of the match, came up and grabbed Mikey's arm. He raised his hand high in the air. He cleared his throat, "Winner of the first Match, Mikey Beleroba."

The crowd's claps and cheers began again. The auditorium was in an uproar as the first match of the first round ended. Mikey made his way down the stage stairs. In front of him stood his friends. Riley, Nessa, and Jenn all gave Mikey a big hug first. The boys laughed and joined in for an all group hug.

The group separated from their hug to give Mikey some air. "Mikey you were great!" Jenn said smiling widely.

"Yeah dude that was awesome!" Rich exclaimed.

Riley laughed, "I'm sure you pulled that out of your ass."

Mikey smiled at Riley, "Well Riley the game is 50% Luck, 50% Skill, and 50% knowledge."

Sean took his fingers and counted the number of percentages. Riley glared at Sean, "Yes it's more then 100%."

Sean glared back at Riley, "I know Riley," he said in a snippy voice, "I was making a joke."

"Alright, alright," Nessa said while waving at her friend who looked ready to stab each other, "let's be happy. Mikey won!"

Up on stage Simon cleared his throat once again, "Listen up everyone." Everyone stopped their conversations and turned to Simon. "That was a good preview of what I expect through out the rest of the tournament. Come tomorrow morning we shall begin with match 2 of round 1 and continue until round 1 is over." Simon looked down to Harley, "Harley that was wonderful game and you played beautifully and wisely. As I said all contestants will keep their Holo System… I mean Magic Bracer, along with some other gifts for playing well in the tournament."

Harley looked at the Bracer on her arm. She sighed, _This thing is useless other then to be in this stage_.

Simon looked at Mikey, "As for you Mikey, rest up for the next round and organize your desks. You may use more then one throughout the who tournament."

Mikey stroked his chin curiously, "More then one deck eh? Okay, I like it."

One of the other players, Shane, called out to Simon, "That goes for everyone right?"

Simon nodded, "Of course. This tournament is completely far."

Everyone in the tournament looked in wonder at Simon thinking the same thing. "I wanna be the best and win that prize." The Magic players were then dismissed to their other classes for the rest of the day. Mikey and his friends had to separate due to their next and last classes being different. Mikey and Sean walked down the hall to their English class.

Sean put his arms behind his head, "Wonder what kind of deck that Shane guy uses? And I wonder what I should use?"

Mikey patted Sean on his shoulder, "You'll be fine, just play with all you got and think clearly."

All of a sudden both boys were pulled back. Harley had caught up with them and pulled them next to her. "So boys, that was a fun game. You ready for English?"

Relieved it was only Harley, Mikey laughed, "Well since 8th period is over in a few minutes I can't wait."

The three walked down the hall in unison. It was not long before they stopped and turned around to walk back to their lockers. The clock in front of them showed 2:09. It was a minute until class was over, and minute closer to tomorrow's matches.


	7. Chapter 6 A Tangled Web We Weave

Magic The Gathering

Journey for the Truth

_This Fan Fiction is based off of the card game Magic: The Gathering, owned by Wizards of the Coast, with a twist of, Yu-Gi-Oh owned by __Kazuki Takahashi__. I don't own Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. All card referencing is done from my own personal experience, , or the official Magic: The Gathering rules. Any referencing to Yu-Gi-Oh is minimal. I never read the manga and my only knowledge is from the TV._

_So if u can get past this… Sit back… read… and enjoy… ^.^_

Hope you like long chapters filled with monster and such lol

(Fixed now with 25% less grammar and sleep errors ^.^)

**Ch. 6 A Tangled Web We Weave **

The sun shined bright over the trees covered in morning mist. The entrance of Chestnut High School was busy with people walking in and out of the doors, talking on cell phones outside the doors because the school did not permit cell phone conversations in the hallways, and some waiting on the outer grounds for their friends to arrive. The building's entrance had a covered area with pillars supporting the tent like structure on the outside. At the base of the pillar farthest from the doors sat Vanessa, hopping in place with anticipation. She looked into the distance waiting for her friends to appear. She concentrated on the corner of the building, where her brother figures and boyfriend would appear from behind after their walk. She focused on the spot so hard that she didn't notice the tall figure behind her.

"Hey Ness…"

Nessa jumped up and turned to the see the person behind her. Sean had taking his bus to get to school and had just gotten there a moment ago. He knew Nessa was so focused that he could spook her, and so he did. Nessa punched him on the shoulder, "You scared me you ass!"

Sean grabbed his hurt arm, "Ouch that hurt…" he said sarcastically. Nessa gave Sean the look, the one every guy knew to be the "death glare". Sean pulled back with his arms out to get her to calm down. "Okay, okay. I'm sorry."

Nessa sat back on the ground. She looked back at the spot, "Sorry I freaked, I'm just super excited."

Sean nodded his head, "That's right, your match is first today isn't it?" Nessa nodded excitingly. Sean bend down to hear Nessa better, "So, what deck are you gonna use?"

Nessa shrugged, "Only have two to pick from."

Sean pulled a box out of his pocket and showed it to Nessa, "Was up last night making and play testing it. I think it's ready for it's first run."

Nessa looked at the box then back to Sean, "You sure you wanna use a deck you JUST made?"

Sean smiled, "If I get kick I get kicked. " Sean shrugged but then held his box up to Nessa again, "But I don't plan on losing."

Nessa stood up quickly, "God where the hell are they?"

Sean scratched his head, "You'd think I'd be enough."

Nessa looked carefully at the same spot. After a few seconds she saw three people turn the corner. She quickly dashed to their location and jumped to her boyfriend. Ian, the cunning man he is, saw Nessa and quickly sidestepped her. Nessa fell to the ground face first.

"Sorry," Ian said, "I thought you were trying to kill me."

Nessa quickly stood up with her face covered in grass and dirt "I'm gonna kill you now!" She screamed and ran at him full force. Ian to the pillars and used them as block aids to dodge Nessa's wrath.

Still standing in the spot they were left in, Rich and Mikey watched the two lovers dance and weave between the pillars. They walked over to Sean who was being played around as Nessa chased Ian.

"So, how about that football game last night?" Rich said to Sean changing the subject.

Sean laughed, "Oh Rich, we're nerds. We don't know what sports are."

"Correction," Mikey said wiggling his finger in the air, "we know what they are and we know how to play, but we don't play."

"It's cuz we are smarter then that and make other people play for us." Rich retorted to Mikey.

The three continued to talk about the ethics of sports as the Nessa began to slow down to caught her breath. Ian jumped in front of her, "Oh come on you can work better then that."

Nessa lunged forward and grappled on to Ian like a snake coiling around it's prey. "Gotcha!"

Ian laughed, "Yeah, ya did." He planted a kiss on Nessa and hugged her.

Nessa let go of Ian and crossed her arms. She looked into his eyes and laughed. Ian looked at her curiously. Nessa pointed at his lips, "You got dirt on your lips now."

Ian quickly whipped his face of the grime on his arm. He looked at Nessa, "Well we're even now I guess."

Nessa shook her head, "Nope… I'll get you later."

The two hugged once more and walked back over to the boys. The five of them were silent for a second, still groggy from the earliness of the morning. Mikey began to yawn. "So where is that bus?" his yawn finished allowing him to rub his eyes.

"You'll be happy," started Ian as he pointed into the distance, "I think I see it coming now."

Mikey turned to see a dull yellow school bus driving towards them. It pulled up right in front of the five friends. The doors opened and out flowed a bunch of teenagers. They came out in groups of friends loudly and slowly. It was not until the end of the line that the only two people worth waiting for popped out of the bus.

Riley stepped off the bus, "And it's not like it's important, but the point of homework is just for the grade. No one cares about the education about it."

"I know right," Jenn said, "I don't do homework to practice." The two girls walked over to their waiting friends. Jenn hugged Mikey and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Hey hun, how's your morning."

Mikey put his arm around Jenn, "Good, me, Ian, and Rich were discussing the usual."

Riley chuckled, "What, Magic?"

"Magic," Rich said then rubbing hish ands together maliciously, "and boobs."

"Magic and boobs are a good combination." Mikey said while he laughed.

Jenn nudged her boyfriend, "You weren't talking about my boobs were you?"

"Nah," Mikey said putting his hands behind his head, "our boobs are our business."

Riley looked at Mikey confusingly, "OUR boobs?"

"Yep, we share custody of our," he paused then coughed, "private area."

Riley put her hands over her ears, "La La La, I don't want to hear it!"

Jenn smiled to Riley, "Then you don't want to know what we did last night." Riley continued to sing louder and louder, but Jenn pulled her arms down. "It's okay," Jenn said moving back to the arms of her boyfriend, "Mikey gave me lesions on Magic last night."

Riley fixed her hair, "Okay, good."

Mikey chuckled, "We were naked the whole time."

Riley grabbed the sides of her head, "Eww Eww Eww. That is soooooo gross."

Jenn lightly slapped Mikey on the shoulder, "Oh come on Mikey, we didn't even have time."

As Riley started to calm down Sean came up behind her and whispered in her ear, "Mikey and Jenn having sex."

Riley turned quickly and started to slap Sean, "I don't need to imagine my two best friends naked!"

"But it's funny." Sean said laughing and taking the soft hits.

Aside from the two fighting Rich turned to Jenn, "So did you actually learn more or was it all 'getting lucky' time?"

Jenn smiled and turned to Mikey, "I did learn a lot more about Magic."

Sean turned away from Riley, who was still hitting him, "That's not the only kind of magic she learned."

Riley stopped and put her arms to her side angrily, "Sean, that's disgusting."

"The act of making love is disgusting?" Ian interrupted.

Riley turned to Ian, "No, I just don't want the image of those two naked in my head having sex!"

Nessa stomped her foot to the ground, "Alright that's enough!" She shouted. Everyone faced her angry face. She stood in place with her arms crossed tapping her food. "Ya know I'm the first match today and I'm kind of nerves. I could use some support."

Mikey nodded his head, "That's right. How are you feeling?"

"Nerves as hell." She said, her expression turning from anger to worry.

Ian wrapped his arm around her, "Don't worry. We'll be in the stands cheering you on. And you got skills. You'll do great."

Nessa smiled slightly. Her face still had worry in it. Mikey walked up to Nessa and put his hands on her shoulders. "Trust me. When you're up there using the Magic Bracer the fear just drains right out of you. You'll get excited and your instincts will take over. Just remember to take each turn easy and not to fly off the handle."

Nessa smiled, "Thanks Mikey." She turned towards the entrance. "Alright let's head on in there!" She marched forward in a rhythmic pattern,

Ian tapped on Mikey's shoulder, "Thanks man, I didn't know what to say to her to cheer her up."

Mikey waved his hand in the air gesturing it was no problem. "She needed to know from someone who already was up on stage." Mikey walked up to the door. "Well, come on guys I wanna watch some matches."

Everyone was in complete agreement. They walked to the entrance of the auditorium. A teacher that the students knew was guarded the door. He was the freshmen algebra teacher named Mr. Marlo. His hair was almost black and his face was thin and had a clean shave. His shirt and pants matched the school colors of red and white.

Mikey looked at Mr. Marlo with his brow raised, "Marlo? What are you doing here? Don't you have a class to teach?"

Mr. Marlo shook his head, "I don't have class till 9. The principle asked that teachers to watch the door so no one who wasn't in the tournament gets in and sees it."

Mikey tapped his finger on his chin, "Why doesn't the principal want anyone to see anything?"

Marlo shrugged, "Says it's a distraction."

Jenn put her hand on Mikey's shoulder, "Stop being paranoid."

"Paranoid?" Marlo asked.

"Mikey thinks it weird that the school is having a Magic the Gathering tournament."

Nessa popped up in front of Mikey and Jenn up front, "Of course it's weird," she pulled out her pass and showed it to Mr. Marlo, "but its fun."

The rest of the group mimicked Nessa and pulled out their passes. Marlo let them all throw the door. Mikey stayed back and looked down at the floor, "Do I sound crazy Marlo?"

Mr. Marlo looked at the ceiling, and Mikey looked up. "To tell you the truth I thought it was weird to," Marlo looked back down to Mikey, "the school wouldn't participate in something like this. I'm one of the people who has to attend those stupid school meetings that talk about functions and such. This never came up."

Mikey scratched his head, "Could just be last minute."

"As last minute as you think this school is they plan something like this out at least a month in advanced." Mikey frowned and looked angrily into the distance. Mr. Marlo patted his shoulder and got his attention. "Tell ya what, I'll see what I can find out over my class breaks."

Mikey smiled and nodded, "Thanks Marlo. You always were the best." Mikey walked into the auditorium now with a better mood. Behind him Mr. Marlo closed the door to make sure no one else came in.

Mikey strolled down to the seats closest seats to the stage. Waiting for him were the rest of the contestants, including his friends who had saved him a seat. Jenn waved for Mikey to hurry to come and sit faster. Mikey sat down next to Jenn only to be grabbed by hands from behind him that wrapped around his eyes. The hands were smooth and womanly. Mikey laughed, "Nessa I know it's you."

"Think again cutie."

Mikey jumped out of his seat. Mikey and the others turned behind them to see that the hands came from Harley. Harley folded her arms on the top of Mikey's chair and rested her head on her arms. "Wow Mikey you need to chill out." Harley giggled.

Mikey, still panting from his fright, took a deep breath to relax. He looked at Harley, "Harley, you scared me."

Harley stood up and pulled Mikey down into his seat. She began to rub his shoulders. "You need to relax. Just sit back and watch some magic. I know that will relax you." Harley rubbed his shoulders gently making Mikey's face turn from fearful to calm and rested.

Jenn glared at Harley and pulled her hands off Mikey's shoulders. "What do you think you're doing?" she said angrily.

Harley looked at Jenn with the same look she was giving, "I was helping Mikey relax."

"Well he doesn't need you to make him relax." Jenn turned Mikey side ways so she could rub his shoulders. "He has me for that." Mikey's sat in his seat with a satisfied look.

Harley crossed her arms, "No, no, no, you're doing it wrong." She snatched Mikey out of her hands and rubbed his shoulders, "Here Mikey let me show you what really pleasure is like."

Jenn stood up and pulled Mikey out of his seat to stand next to her. Jenn looked at Harley furiously, "What is your deal?" she shouted.

Harley crossed her arms once again and gave Jenn a smirk, "I just wanted to repay Mikey. He helped me get over my insecurities about my intelligence."

Jenn pushed Mikey back. She got closer to Harley, "If you're so smart you could see that Mikey is MY boyfriend! Don't you think that rubbing his back is a little inappropriate?"

She shrugged, "Just wanted to show how grateful I was," she winked at Mikey, "and what he could have."

Jenn's face was red with anger. Her fist's clenched and her arms shook. She was about to flip out, but Mikey grabbed on to her arm and poked his head into the conversation. "Harley that's very," he paused, "nice of you to want to repay me, but you can see I'm with Jenn and rubbing my back is not right. So please, if you want to repay me let's just stay friends."

Harley crossed her arms, "Oh, okay Mikey. I guess if I can be friends with you that's as good as trying to go further." She winked.

Mikey's face got red. He looked back at Jenn's was red to, but for other reasons. Mikey waved his hands back and forth, "Yes Harley, I love Jenn."

Jenn's fiery expression lessened and turned to calm. She grabbed on to Mikey's arm and both of them sat down.

Harley sat in her seat and smiled. _Don't worry Mikey. You'll be mine sooner or later._ Harley sat forward in her seat and tapped Nessa on her shoulder. "So, Nessa right?"

Nessa faced Harley, "Yes, and I hate people who try to steal my friend's boyfriends."

"I said I was sorry." Harley frowned. The rest of the group turned around to look at Harley, "I really meant it when I felt grateful for Mikey's help. I'm very insecure about myself, and Mikey helped me."

Mikey looked at his friends, "Give her a chance. She seems sincere."

Nessa's eyes glared up and down Harley, "Fine, but I don't trust her."

"Anyway," Harley sighed while trying to change the subject, "Nessa, I hear you're first today."

Nessa was still upset with Harley, but the mention of her match today changed her mood. "Yeah, I'm excited."

Harley leaned in closer, "Yeah, I know that girl too." She pointed to Nessa's opponent. She was a tiny girl with short brown hair. Her clothes were plain and didn't have much going for her. She sat in her seat with her hands folder and her legs crossed while looking down at the floor trying not to speak with anyone. Harley shook her head, "Cleo Pater, she's a freshmen. I haven't heard much about her other then that. She's really reserved."

Jenn, still upset at Harley's actions, looked angrily at her, "So what are you a student dictionary or something?"

Harley returned the glare to Jenn, "I'm a cheerleader. I'm technically popular, so I tend to know a little bit about people."

"Oh yeah," Rich said looking funny at Harley, "Who am I?"

"Rich Syro. 18 years old. Average classes. Below average grades. You have a tendency to be weird, obnoxious, and more weird."

"Hey my grades aren't that bad."

Harley sighed, "But passed that you are a lovable kind heart guy who people can depend on."

Rich jumped in his seat, "Yeah, just what I was hoping for."

Nessa smiled, "Sadly that was all correct. I guess you are a good dictionary." Nessa looked at Mikey, "I guess we can keep her around."

Mikey gave Nessa a discomfited look. Harley shook her head, "It's ok Mikey I deserve it."

Nessa scratched her head, "I guess I can ease up on you."

Harley sighed and tapped Nessa on the shoulder again. "So what deck are you using?"

Nessa smiled, "You'll see."

Ian put his arms around his girlfriend, "Come on hun. You haven't even told me which deck you are using."

Nessa wiggled her finger in front of Ian, "You'll see soon enough."

The doors at the entrance slowly opened. Everyone turned around in his or her seats to see Simon walking down the red-carpeted pathway of the auditorium. He raised his hand into the air and waved it forward. Behind him came a bunch of men in blue suits. The boxes the men entered with were labeled "Holo". The men in blue walked to each row and passed out the boxes to each person, and even Jenn got one. Reviewers who examined each of their decks also talked to each contestant. As they reviewed every deck Simon reached the stage and walked up the stairs. "Each box has a Magic Bracer in it. Like I said before you will all get to keep these after the tournament."

Harley stood up, "But if we can only use the bracers here why would we hold on to them? Souvenir?"

Simon laughed, "No need to get your under wear in a knot Harley. Soon the Bracers will be sold throughout the world. You will be the first ones in the world to own these."

Harley sat back in her seat, "Okay, that's better."

Mikey sat up straight, "But wait. How will they work? The Magic Bracers need that sphere to operate." Mikey pointed to the flashing orbs above the stage.

"You all are very wordy today." Simon said walking to the front center of the stage. He pointed to the ceiling, "In a few days there will be satellites places around Earth's orbit. There are three that will control each other and control all the other Bracer functions."

"Wow, and the holograms will reach from space?" Mikey asked.

"The Magic Bracer has a strong signal puller and mini holographic projector. With the bracer's signal attracter and satellite's unlimited solar powered holographic generator and advanced computer system the holo system will run smoothly." Simon continued to explain the system. Mikey and Ian, being complete tech nerds, followed every word of Simon's explanation down to the period. The others who understood little to none about computers simply smiled and nodded. Simon ended his explanation and snapped his fingers. "Well enough boring lectures. How about we get to some magic?"

Everyone's attention was snapped back to Simon. Nessa started to shake a little in her seat. Ian put his hand on her lap, "It's ok Nessa. You'll wipe the floor with…"

Before Ian could finish his sentence Nessa flew out of her seat. "Alright!" She screamed in excitement, "My Match!" Nessa grabbed her bracer and her deck. She ran up to the stage and stopped next to Simon. Nessa put on her bracer, "I'm ready."

Simon looked at her with his eyebrow raised, "Okay, well I guess we can begin. Match 2 Vanessa Willer vs Cleo Pater." In the stands Cleo sat with her head still looking down. Simon looked at down to his guest, "Cleo," he said gently, "come up on stage dear."

Cleo looked up, with blue eyes slightly damp. She grabbed the box with the Magic Bracer in it, which was still unopened, and her purse. She slowly excused her way out of her seat in the second row and into the aisle. Her feet moved her slowly to the stage and up the stairs. On the stage she looked at Nessa who was impassionedly tapping her foot. Cleo turned head from her and slowly opened the box, and put her bracer on. Nessa took her deck out of a large box she was holding. Cleo rummaged through her bag and found her deck box and did the same. They both began to shuffle their decks.

Nessa put her deck in the bracer and looked at Cleo, "No need to be scared Cleo."

The tiny girl was trembling while she shuffled her deck. She stopped her self twice from dropping her deck. After a minute she put it in her bracer. "I'm sorry," she whispered in a light voice.

Simon walked over to Cleo, "Cleo," he said kneeling in front of her, "You are going have to be a little more assertive. Being withdrawn will not help the match be as successful as the last."

Cleo wiped her eyes to keep them dry, "I'm just scared." She said with a slightly high tone of voice.

Simon stood up and walked passed her, "You'll do fine," he said walking down the stairs.

Cleo stood there in silence with her body still shaking. She pulled her arms close to her chest and put her head down. Her face was red and she started to sweat. _Everyone is looking at me_, she though_, What if I mess up. What if I…._ A hand on her shoulder broke her stream of through. Nessa had walked from her spot to Cleo's.

Nessa pulled Cleo's head up to look into her eyes, but Cleo's looked out into the distance. "You okay?" she asked.

Cleo cringed, "I'm scared."

Nessa smiled and nodded, "I was too." Cleo's eyes turned to Nessa's. "Do you love Magic?"

Cleo smiled and nodded, "It's the only thing that really makes me happy." Cleo turned from Nessa again. "All I got are people to play Magic with, but they don't really talk to me. I don't have any friends."

"That's not true." Nessa said putting her hands on her hips. Cleo looked at Nessa confused. Nessa sighed, "People who play Magic are all friends. As long as they are kind and they try to be friends." She held out her hand to shake. "I'll be your first friend if you'll let me."

Cleo rubbed her eyes, "I guess I can give it a try." Cleo extended her arm and shook Nessa's hand. She rubbed her eyes again, "I'm sorry. I'm always scared I'll mess up and I never have any confidence."

"You gotta have confidence if you wanna beat me!" Nessa said loudly.

Cleo jumped back slightly, "Okay." She smiled and clenched her hands, "I'll give it all I got."

Nessa nodded, "Do you win any matches with those people you play against?" Cleo nodded happily. "Good. Now just pretend that you're in that situation, but instead of being alone you have a whole auditorium of friends."

Cleo turned slowly to the crowd. Everyone in the stands began to clap loudly. They yelled for Cleo. They yelled for her to give it her all. Cleo's face turned to its original peachy color. "Alight," Cleo said turning to Nessa, "I came here to play card games and to make friends. Looks like I already did half of that."

The two girls shook hands again. Nessa walked to the opposite of the stage and both her and Cleo settled themselves. Simon sat in his seat, "Touching, but now it's time to begin the match."

The referee walked on to the stage and into the back. He cleared his throat, "This match will be between Vanessa Willer and Cleo Pater. The same standard rules as before apply. The winner will be whoever gets their opponent's life total to 0 or if their opponent decks out." He looked to both Cleo and Nessa, "If both sides are ready then activate the holo system."

Cleo waved her arm in front of her and shouted to the bracer to active. Nessa did the same, and after the holo tables appeared the coin was flipped. Nessa called heads, but it came up tails. Cleo scratched her nose with her thumb, "Okay, I'll go first." She drew her seven cards and liked what she got. "I'll keep my hand," She said as she organized it. Nessa drew her cards and kept her hand.

"Looks like I start off the game." Cleo dropped her first land on the table and it was swamp. Cleo looked at her hand carefully as the land card appeared behind her. "I'll end my turn," she said letting a long sigh out after she finished.

Nessa wasted no time and drew her card. She examined her hand. She pulled a forest from it and put it on the table. "Not very eventful, but I'll end my turn."

Ian looked at the forest in confusion. Mikey saw Ian's confused look. "What?" Mikey asked.

"A forest card. Now I know what deck she's using now, but I didn't think she would use it."

"Wait, you don't mean," Mikey began with a shocked expression on his face.

The others gathered in on the conversation. Jenn rested her chin on Mikey's shoulder. "What deck?" she asked

"A deck that shouldn't be ready for any serious tournament."

Rich looked confusingly at Ian. "But I though Nessa's decks were fixed?"

Ian shook his head, "Not this one, she took part her second deck and made a completely new one."

"What was her old deck?" Jenn asked.

"It was a faerie deck actually." Ian said pointing to Harley whose main deck was faeries, "A Blue and White one, but she didn't like it and scraped it."

Riley looked on stage, "What did she replace it with?"

Ian and Mikey looked at each other then at the stage. Mikey rubbed his chin, "She said she changed it up a lot, so maybe she balanced it and made it better."

Ian shrugged, "Maybe, but the last we play tested it, well she didn't last long."

Rich and Sean both leaned in to Mikey and Ian, "What deck?" They shouted in unison.

As they were talking, Cleo has placed another swamp in play and tapped both for swamps. "I summon Boneknitter." Black mana sprung from the lands and collided with each other. The energy turned into ugly creature. Its skin was tight and yellow. It wore a red and gold puffy shirt and pants. It sat down on the stage floor staring at Nessa. "Boneknitter," Cleo began with her voice still low, but less reserved, "it's a 1/1 that can regenerate for 1 and a swamp. That will end my turn."

Nessa nodded, "Okay, I draw." She drew the card and put it in her hand. Her eyes glanced over the cards in her hand, and after a couple of seconds she throw a plains on the table. She tapped both lands and threw a creature card down. "I summon Deadly Recluse!"

The two mana spheres fell to the ground. The energy began to twirl around and take form. A brown spider began to take form. It's legs were thin along with it's body, which had a indentation in it. "Deadly Recluse is a 1/2 with reach and deathtouch. I hope you like bugs." Nessa smiled and ended her turn.

Ian and Mikey's eyes grew wide and their mouths became ajar. Ian shook his head, "No way."

Rich rapidly shook Ian's shoulders, "What? What is it?" he shouted.

"Spiders." Mikey whispered.

Everyone looked at Mikey with an alarming look. Mikey was a lot of things, but a lover of spiders he was not. Jenn put her arm around Mikey's neck and cuddled up to him. "It's okay honey. Remember they're not real."

Mikey shuttered for a moment, but regained his composure. "I hate spiders with a passion." He rubbed the bridge of his nose then laughed a little, "Nessa made this deck for two reasons. As a replacement for her second deck, and to piss me off."

Riley chuckled a little, "Are you really that afraid of spiders?"

Mikey let out a long sigh. "When I was in kindergarten we went to a bug museum where they had live spiders on display. My friend thought it would funny to release the spiders all over me." Mikey shivered a little, "Needless to say I never spoke to him again and I never touched a spider again."

"He can deal with fake spiders," Jenn said petting Mikey on the head to calm him down, "but whenever he sees a real one he freezes up."

Sean looked at the stage, "Those spiders don't look to real. You can tell they are fake."

Mikey sighed once again as Cleo ended her turn, playing an additional swamp and leaving them untapped. Nessa's hand drew another card and played a forest. She examined her card closely. Her eyes looked at each card only to move to Cleo's zombie. "So is your deck themed around zombies?"

Cleo looked down at the floor, but quickly looked back at Nessa trying to keep her state of mind focused. "Yes," she answered, "and do you use spiders."

Nessa grinned slightly, "Yeah, it's a mix spider deck. It's based a lot around spiders, but it also has cards to help boost the spiders and help them along. It's still my spider deck though." Nessa tapped her plain and pulled a card from her hand. "I summon Soul Warden."

She placed the Soul Warden card on the holo table. The single mana produced from her plains transformed into a young, beautiful woman. Her body was draped in white cloth, and her brown hair was covered in glowing yellow lights. "As you can tell this creature isn't a spider," Nessa started folding her hand up and putting her hands at her sides, "but now whenever a creature comes into play I gain 1 life." She moved her shoulders to loosen the tension. "I'll end my turn there."

"Soul Warden? What about Essence Warden?" Jenn scratched her head.

Mikey turned to Jenn, "Some cards are almost the exact same creatures with the same effects, but are of different colors. More common are creatures with same effects, but different characteristics."

"They could have the same effect, but for different cards. It just makes for more combos in different decks." Sean said.

Jenn nodded and look back up at the stage. Cleo played another swamp, and was in the middle of tapping all four of her swamps. She put her new creature from her hand into play. The mana fused and popped. The creature made from the mana had purplish skin and his limbs were crossed like a pretzel over him. The abomination sat in place drooling from its yellow smile.

"This is Cackling Fiend." Cleo said with her voice starting to adjust to normal levels. "It's a 2/1 that makes you discard a card from your hand when it's summoned."

Nessa's smile turned to a frown. She looked unhappily at her hand and discarded a card. "At least when you summon your zombie I gain one life." She retorted to Cleo as her life count went up my one, "Is that the end of your turn?" Cleo nodded and Nessa drew her card. Nessa happily put down a mountains that she just drew.. "I'll play Orinthopter and Toxic Iguanar!" She took two cards from her hand and placed them on the table one after another. The first was Orinthopter, which glided down from the ceiling. The creature after that was Toxic Iquanar. The one red mana that it cost was produced from the mountains Nessa at played. The orb of red energy flew out of the mountains and transformed into a large red lizard with a long tail and long, sharp teeth. They took their place in front of Nessa.

"Orinthopter is a 0/2 with flying that costs nothing to play. The other is Toxic Inquanar. This creature is a 1/1 that had deathtouch if I control a green permanent." Nesssa pointed to her Warden, "Not only that, but I also gain to life for two creatures coming into play." Her life count raised to 23. "That's my turn."

"Why doesn't Nessa attack?" Jenn asked looking up at her small army of monsters, "She has her spider that she can attack with."

Ian crossed his arms, "The cards she has now are more defense cards, and the zombie that Cleo has regenerate and it makes for a good wall."

"Mikey's Rhox had that effect to didn't it?" Jenn pondered the thought for a moment. "So regenerate makes the creature returns from the graveyard like a zombie." Jenn smiled.

"Not exactly," Mikey began, "regenerate is more like a temporary 'prevent all damage' effect. If the creature is regenerated it is tapped, that damage is removed from it, and if it is in combat it is removed from the combat, but it still deals damage if it was regenerated during the damage step."

"I think I understand."

Rich leaded into the conversation, "It pretty much gives it a shield that protects from damage and being destroyed."

Riley pointed at the stage, "Hey what's Cleo doing?"

Everyone looked at Cleo. She had just drawn her card for the turn, and she had started to laugh. Nessa looked at her with an odd look, "What's so funny?"

Cleo suddenly stopped laughing and returned to her reserved self, "Sorry, I just got really excited."

"No need to be sorry," Nessa said happy to see Cleo having a good time, "now let's see what you pulled."

Cleo nodded, "Okay," her voice was low, but upbeat. She tapped all four swamps, "I summon Korlash, Heir to Blackblade!" Cleo throw the creature card on the table. The 4 black spheres shoot out of the swamps. They flew wildly around the stage slowly getting closer and close to each other. They finally collided together creating a dark vortex. A hand slowly emerged from the vortex and pulled itself forward. The being emerged from the portal covered in a dark aura. Korlash's body was covered in a dark purple armor. His helm had two devil like horns protruding from the sides and was tight on his skull. He drew his black sword from its sheath and swung it around his body. Cleo smiled with excitement at her large creature, "Korlash is a powerful creatures whose power and toughness are equal to the number of swamps I control. Korlash also has regenerate."

Nessa looked at the large creature what stood mincingly in place. "That's a big zombie," She said with a slight twitch. She shook her head to snap her focus back into place. "I still gain a life." She said as her points went up to 25. "Is that your turn?"

Cleo shook her head. Nessa put her hand on her deck. Her hand was shaking. _I don't have anything in my hand to go up against this thing_, she though. Her forehead began to get sweaty and her mouth parched. She drew her card slowly then looked at it. Her face turned from disappointment to extremely ecstatic. "Alright!" She shouted making Cleo's expression change as well. Nessa shuffled her hand around looking over it a few times and organizing it. She put a Plains on the table. "Okay," she tabled her Soul Warden, "I'll attack with Soul Warden!"

Ian and Mikey both jumped out of their seats. "What are you doing Nessa!" They both screamed, but it was to late. The Warden had already gone form her position near Nessa. She was heading for Cleo.

Cleo stood back for a second, "What are you planning?" Cleo's question didn't have time to get an answer. She put Korlash forward to black the Warden. Korlash lunged in front of the Warden to block. Nessa laughed, "Just what I wanted!" She tapped her forest and played an instant from her hand. "I play Giant Growth!" The card appeared in front of Nessa. It had a picture of a giant rat overpowering a snake in a forest. Nessa clenched her fist, "Giant growth gives my creature +3/+3 until the end of the turn, and I think that's enough to take out your Blackblade along with my creature because you don't have the mana to regenerate!"

Cleo smiled, "Sorry Nessa, but I can't let that happen." From her hand Cleo revealed another Korlash from her hand, "I'll activate the Grandeur ability of my Korlash, heir to Blackblade."

Everyone gasped at what Cleo said. Rich crossed his arms, "What the hell is Granter?"

Mikey sighed, "Grandeur," he said correcting Rich's pronunciation "is an effect that some Legendry creatures have. By discarding a creature with the same name from your hand their ability activates."

Cleo discarded her second Korlash, Heir to Blackblade from her hand. "By discarding another Korlash I can search my library for two swamps and put them into play tapped. Might not be able to regenerate, but I can increase Korlash's power and toughness from 4 to 6."

Korlash's aura began to spiral as Cleo obtained her two lands and put them into play. Korlash stomped over to the Soul Warden who was standing in place nervously. Korlash took his blade and slashed it through the Warden whose form turned to glass and shattered. Korlash retracted his sword and jumped back to his old spot.

Nessa looked traumatized as her Warden fell to pieces. She shook her head and blinked multiple times. "Okay, well I'll end my turn there."

Cleo jumped in place, "Yea, I'm doing good! Now to draw." Her hand touched the top card of the deck and she drew. "I'll play another swamp." She played her swamp. After that she brought her Korlash card forward and tapped it. "Now, I attack with Korlash!" Korlash lifted his sword into the air and made a loud grunting noise. He jumped forward with his sword ready to slash through Nessa. Nessa stood their looking at the floor. Cleo's face was overjoyed, "I'm sorry Nessa, but this is fun!"

Nessa smiled, "You're right. This is fun." She tabled the rest of her mana and laid a card down on the table. "Order!" she yelled. At that moment Korlash stood still with his blade only a few inches from Nessa. As if he were made of water he started to evaporate.

Cleo looked at her zombie knight with terror. "Wait, what did you do?"

Next to Nessa was a card, but it was different from the others. It was like two cards turned sideways and put on one card. The one half of the card was a white spell called Order. The other half was a red spell called Chaos. Each had it's own individual mana cost, picture, and descriptions. "I used this. A split card called Order and Chaos." Nessa smiled widely, "I tricked you good. I figured the only way to get you to get conferrable was if I attacked with my Warden and pulled off that combo."

Cleo was in shock now. Her eyes were wide and they began tear up. She rubbed her eyes to try and hide her them. "That was good Nessa, but It's not over yet for Korlash." Her voice trembled a little, but the excitement of the match stabilized her. "I'll play Diabolic Tutor. This card let's me search my library for any card and put it into my hand." She put the card into play. The card appeared in front of Cleo. It had a picture of a demonic man being told secrets by a whispering skeleton. Cleo looked through her library and found the card she wanted. She shuffled her deck and put it back. "I'll end my turn there."

Nessa took her next card into her hand, "My turn then." Nessa looked at her cards and put another mountains into play. She tapped 5 of her land and left one plains untapped. She took the card from her hand and put it into play. "I'll play my Plated Spider!" Her mana converged into one and expanded into an eight legged giant. The spider's skin was covered in hard and spiky thorn like scales. "That's my turn."

Cleo drew her next card quickly and tabled for of her swamps. She put the card she looked for last turn. "I'll play Korlash, Heir to Blackblade." Once again Korlash was summoned to the field. His aura was even darker now. "May deck is not only based around zombies, but also Korlash." Cleo's eyes were no longer misty; they were full of determination to win. "I'll end my turn there."

Nessa smiled, "I'm glad you are getting less affair and more determined."

Cleo smiled as well, "When I'm back into a corner in magic I tend to get more serious."

Nessa drew her card, "And that's what I like." Nessa placed another mountains this turn and tapped 6 off her lands, once again leaving a plains. "I'll play and equip Behemoth Sledge to my Plated Spider." From the 3 mana needed to play the card a large sledgehammer made of stone and wood covered in ivy appeared in front of the Plated Spider. The spider took hold of it in between it fangs. Nessa moved her head left and right to relieve tension, "My sledge give the equipped creature +2/+2, lifelink , and trample." Her eyes looked over her cards in her hand then to the creatures in play. She nodded, "That's it for my turn."

The creatures all stood in their spots ready to attack, but the field stayed quiet. Cleo and Nessa were both playing smart. Cleo could attack Nessa, but Nessa has enough defenses to protect herself for a few rounds of attacks. Not only that, but if Cleo attacked she would be defenseless from Nessa's spider. With the effect of trample her spider's attack could break through Cleo's other regenerating zombie. On the other hand if Nessa attacked first she would lose her spider.

Cleo took the next card of her deck and looked at it. Her eyes grew wide and she smiled. She tapped three swamps and played her card. "Sorry Nessa, but I'm gonna play this. The instant called Dark Banishing." The card was revealing in front of her. The card showed an armored man being disintegrated by a dark force. "I'll use Dark Banishing to destroy your Plated Spider." In and burst of black energy Nessa's Spider was consumed by the darkness leaving nothing behind but a few webs and the Behemoth sledge.

Nessa shook her head, "No, no, no! Not My spider!"

Cleo closed her eyes for a moment. "Nessa, I have to thank you." Cleo opened her eyes and Nessa looked into them. "You are a really big help in helping me have confidence in myself," she paused and tilted her head down, "but now I have to prove to myself that I am strong. I have to win this match." She looked straight ahead at Nessa and turned or Korlash's card horizontal. She pointed at Nessa, "I'll attack with Koralsh!" Korlash lifted his blade into the air. He charged forward only to stop a few feet in front of him. Cleo looked at her creature with wide eyes as it started to vanish. "What did you do?" She yelled.

After wiping the sweat from her face, Nessa pointed to her card she played. It was a white instant that had a picture of a man holding a plow. "It my Swords of Plowshares. It let's me remove your creature from the game, but you do gain life equal to it's toughness." Cleo's life gauge rose to 27. Cleo looked at where her creature once was in total shock. Nessa giggled, "I'm glad I'm helping you get passed your confidence issues, but I'm here to win this tournament. We can still be friends, but I need to win."

The dust from Korlash fade, and Cleo scratched her head with her hand. "I guess I'll end my turn."

Nessa took her next card, "I'll right, now let's bring out the big daddy spider. I summon Jungle Weaver!" Nessa tapped all 7 of her mana to play her new spider. The mana slowly enlarged and started to take form. It became a giant spider that extended pass the audience. Nessa nodded and ended her turn.

Before her untap step Cleo played a card from her hand. "I play Raise Dead. This lets me return a creature from my graveyard to my hand. The card showed at picture of a zombie coming out of the ground. Cleo drew her card. She smiled, "Looks like there is still hope yet." She played two cards from her hand, "I'll play one swamp and Dark Ritual!" She tossed the card down. The card showed a clawed hand covered in blood on a sacrificial table of some sort. "With this I can add 3 black mana to my mana pool, and I'll use it to play this," Cleo took another card in her hand and played it, "I play Beseech the Queen!"

The card appeared next to Cleo. It had a picture of a person looking up into the clouds. The clouds took a form of a god like figure. Nessa looked at the card with surprise. "What is that?" she asked.

Cleo laughed, "This card lets me look for a card with converted mana cost less then or equal to the number of lands I control, reveal it, and put it into my hand." Cleo looked through her deck and found the card. She shuffled the deck and revealed the card. It was another Korlash. She tapped four more mana to play her Korlash once more. Korlash again returned to the field ready to play. "I'm not giving up," Cleo said, "I'm gonna keep trying."

Nessa sighed, "Ya know, I keep kill this thing. Why does it keep coming back?"

Cleo crossed her arms, "Because it loves you." The two stood there with serious faces. Final after a few seconds the two began to laugh at the comment along with everyone else in the audience. Cleo sighed lightly, "I'll end my turn."

Nessa took a deep breath and drew her card. She jumped in place out of excitement. "Alright," she yelled as she tapped her mana probably, "I summon my Giant Trap Door Spider!" The mana flew to the ground and opened a small rift in it. Out of it popped a spider that crafted a tent around the hole and hit under it. "I'll also equipped the sledge to my Jungle Weaver." She tapped her lands and her sledge floated over to the spider. It held the sledge with its large teeth. "I'll end my turn there."

Cleo drew her next card and put it into her hand. She pointed to Nessa, "Korlash attack!"

Korlash again took his blade and ready it for an attack. Nessa tapped her last plains, "Sorry, but I got one more card to remove stuff from the game in my hand." She played her card. It showed a picture of a lion warrior disappearing and turning into white petals. "I play Path of Exile. This lets me remove a creature form the game, but lets you search your library for a basic land and put it into play." Korlash once again froze in space. He looked at his hand. After a few seconds his body turned to dust and vanished.

Cleo smiled, "Well it's a good thing you said that's your last remove card form game card." Nessa looked puzzling at Cleo. Cleo pulled the last card form her hand, and it was Kolash. "Remember when I used Grandeur to get more swamps and I discard one from my hand. Remember I raised dead, and now I'm gonna play it this turn." Cleo played her final Korlash. Korlash appeared once more on the field. Cleo gripped her hand, "Try and get rid of this one!"

Nessa drew her card and played another plains. "Okay, I'll end my turn."

Cleo drew and played a swamp that she drew. This brought Korlash to be an 8/8., Cleo wasted no time, "Korlash attack Nessa." Korlash stomped over to Nessa only to stop in his tracks once again. This time he didn't disappear, but he was stuck in place. "What? What's wrong now?" Cleo said annoyed.

The air was still for a second until Nessa laughed. She pointed down on the stage. "Oh come on, remember my trap door spider." Cleo looked down and was shocked. Nessa's Trap Door Spider had held Korlash in place. Cleo looked at Nessa still confused. "My Trap Door Spider," Nessa began, "has an effect that I can tap some mana and tap it. Then all I have to do it remove it from the game and I can remove a none flying creature along with it."

Cleo looked in astonishment as Koralsh got pulled into the ground with the Giant spider. Cleo shook her head, "I though you said you had no more 'remove from game cards'?"

Nessa chuckled, "Yeah, in my hand. You never asked what my Trap Door Spider could do, so I just let it go."

Cleo looked away from Nessa. "I don't have anything else." She said holding the tears. "Korlash was always my only offence. The rest of my zombies are all defenses and discarders. I can't win."

As the creatures stood in their spots, so did Nessa and Cleo. They were still for a few moments as if the world has stopped. Nessa nodded her head, "If my deck wasn't such a prick with removing cards from the game cards I'm sure you would have done better."

Cleo looked at Nessa. Her eyes still tearing up, but her smile made them seem better. She rubbed her eyes and turned to Simon. "I forfeit the rest of the match. I have no other cards to use against her. There is no point in dragging this out."

Simon nodded to Cleo then nodded to the referee. The ref stood in his spot in the back and raised his arms in the air. "Cleo has forfeited because she is unable to continue in the match;" The referee pointed both arms in the direction of Nessa, "therefore the winner of the second match is Vanessa Willer!"

Cheers and clapping from the crowd filled the room as the match ended and the holograms disappeared. Cleo had turned away and start her walk down the stairs. Nessa ran over before Cleo could run away. She put her hand on her shoulder. "It was a great match," she said leaning in to Cleo, "I can't wait for you to get better and for a rematch."

Cleo turned around and looked at Nessa with her face still tear filled. She sniffled and rubbed her eyes, "So are we still friends?"

Nessa laughed, "Oh course we are, duh. I did mean what I said."

"I'm glad." Cleo's voice cracked a little, but her face started to have a brightness to it. "I hope to play you again someday to Nessa." Cleo walked down the stairs. "Do us both proud and play well in the tournament."

Nessa gave Cleo a thumbs up, "No problem."

"And now," Nessa turned around to see Simon in the center of the stage, "There will be a 15 minute break before the next match. So the next contestants better start to prepare."


	8. Chapter 7 In the Dark

Magic The Gathering

Journey for the Truth

_This Fan Fiction is based off of the card game Magic: The Gathering, owned by Wizards of the Coast, with a twist of, Yu-Gi-Oh owned by __Kazuki Takahashi__. I don't own Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. All card referencing is done from my own personal experience, , or the official Magic: The Gathering rules. Any referencing to Yu-Gi-Oh is minimal. I never read the manga and my only knowledge is from the TV._

_So if u can get past this… Sit back… read… and enjoy… ^.^_

**Ch. 7 In the Dark**

Nessa jumped down from the stage and ran to her waiting friends. She jumped into her boyfriend's arms and cuddled up to him. "I won!" She exclaimed many times trying to jump in Ian's arms, which made Ian shake and almost fall over.

After stabilizing himself, Ian pried Nessa from his chest. He held his hand near his heart, "Geez Nessa, you almost killed me." She stated while panting.

With an adorable look in her eyes Nessa stared at Ian. "I won. My new spiders really worked!"

Mikey walked up to Nessa and gave her a disconcerting look. "You had us scared with the new deck." Mikey said with his head on a tilt.

"Oh calm down," Nessa said, "I had it all under control."

Mikey smiled, "Just be careful. With your win that means you and me fight in the next round."

Nessa grinned as well, "I won't have it any other way."

The group came closer together. Jenn and the others tried to hug the bouncy Nessa, but she could not stay still long enough for her friends to congratulate her. Everyone cheered and clapped around her except for Mikey. He walked up the aisle looking at the floor with a distressed look. His mind was still wrapped around the idea of the tournament. He looked up from his view of the floor to see Cleo looking down from the top of the slopped aisle. She smiled, "You have no reason to be sad."

"No I don't," he began as he closed his eyes, "but I just have a felling there is something wrong."

Her smiled turned to a slight frown. Cleo crossed her arms, "So you feel it to?"

Mikey quickly looked to Cleo. "Wait," he walked closer to her spot, "you felt something weird about this tournament to?"

"Ever since I saw Simon I had a weird feeling about the tournament." Cleo edged closer to Mikey and whispered into his ear, "I feel like he has a bad aura around him."

Mikey agreed. The two both stood there in silent thought. They wondered what their feelings for Simon and the tournament were. They could have been anxiety from the tournament, but the two felt it was something more. They knew something else was afoot. As they pondered their thoughts the doors behind them opened and shut quickly. Cleo and Mikey both looked at the entrance to see Mr. Marlo standing in front of them. "Ah Mikey," Marlo began walking to the two, "wonderful timing. I got a little info on your 'problem'."

Mikey smiled at Marlo, "So what's up with this tournament?"

"Sure you wanna talk about this in front of her?" Marlo pointed to Cleo.

"It okay," Mikey laughed as he pointed to Cleo with his thumb, "Cleo here has the same feelings I do about the tournament."

Marlo nodded, "Okay." He leaned in close to the two, "I listened in on a phone call of the Principal. It was weird. He wasn't speaking like he normally does."

The two looked at each other then to Marlo. "What do you mean 'weird'?" Mikey asked Marlo with his eyebrow raised.

"He always speaks properly on the phone. I've known him for a long time. Even with his family he speaks to them like a business client. This call was different. He spoke formally with slang. He even said 'yo' once or twice."

Mikey nodded, "But it's really not a lot to go off of. We need more info."

"I'm not one for being wild and crazy," Cleo said in her normal low voice, "but maybe if we go do some research on this. Like if we found some paper work."

"That's a great idea Cleo!" Mikey exclaimed quietly, "We can look at some files and get more info on this tournament."

"You're gonna have to do it without me," Marlo said sadly, "One of the people saw me eavesdrop, and now I'm probably on the list."

Mikey nodded, "No problem." Mikey nudged on Cleo's shoulder with his elbow, "Come on, let's get going Cleo."

Cleo moved back from Mikey for a moment being withdrawn once again. She shook her head and clenched her hands and arms. "No. No time to be scared Cleo. Time to be brave." She stepped forward, but stopped just as fast as she started. She looked at Mikey, "Shouldn't we tell your friends what we are doing?"

"Remember," Mikey said while laughing, "they are your friends to., but I'm sure they wouldn't care. They already think I'm crazy. Might as well not make a big deal about it." Both of the teens walked passed Mr. Marlo. Mikey turned and waved to his former teacher and the doors closed behind them.

Out in the halls Mikey and Cleo walked quietly. The main office where the files were all stored and kept was right around the corner. They softly dashed over to the door. The two peaked into the office and saw two women sitting at their desks doing paper work. They pulled back from the door. Mikey sighed, "Looks like we'll have to get rid of them."

"Get rid of whom?" A voice called from behind Mikey and Cleo.

"Well duh," Mikey said as he turned to the person behind him, "the two secretaries at their," he paused to see who was talking and then jumped back lightly, "desks!"

Cleo also turned to see the person behind them. The tall thin woman was Harley. She gave both Mikey and Cleo as dirty look. "What are you two doing?" She asked.

Mikey put his hand over Harley's mouth, "Quiet you." Mikey looked back into the office. The two women were still sitting there. Mikey nodded then cringed. He pulled his hand off Harley's mouth. "Did you just lick my hand?" he asked her with his eyes open wide.

"Sorry," she laughed, "I usually do that when my mouth is covered by a man."

Cleo tugged on Mikey's sleeve, "I think she's hitting on you."

"I noticed." He groaned and pulled both Harley and Cleo away from the door around the corner. "Ok Harley, listen. We are getting info on the tournament from the office. You either are with us or you go back."

"I'll be good," Harley said shrugging her shoulders, "but what about him?" Harley pointed to a dark figure sitting in a seat next to Mikey. Mikey jumped back and gawked at the man next to him. It was Rich who was the one in the Seat.

He saluted Mikey with is right index and middle fingers. "So what are you guys doing here?"

Frustrated, Mikey rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Rich, what are you doing here?"

Rich stood from his chair and pointed to Harley. "I saw you leave and be followed by this tramp."

With a fiery look in her eyes Harley glared at Rich, "I'm not tramp. I'm just very lovable."

Mikey put his hands up to prevent them from fighting, "Alright you two stay quiet." Mikey looked to through the door again to see the two secretaries still at their seats. He turned back too his three friends, "Alright we are all in this now. We have to get info on the tournament."

"Why are we doing this?" Rich asked.

"We have a bad feeling about this whole tournament." Cleo looked at Rich, but then quickly turned her head when he looked at her.

There was a noise coming from the office. Mikey looked in and saw the two coming towards the door. He quickly grabbed his friends and threw them to the wall. He peaked around the corner to see the secretaries make their way down the hallway to the staff break room. Mikey sighed with relief and turned to the others. "Come on we gotta get in there and get the information."

"But wait," Harley started, but before she could finish her thought Mikey had turned the corner and walked into the room. Cleo followed behind him and stayed close. Harley groaned and looked to Rich, "Shall we?"

Rich chuckled and walked passed her, "Might as well cuz I don't know what the hells going on." The two walked threw the door to see Cleo sifting through piles of papers on a desk careful not to mess them up and get them out of order. Mikey was at one of the three computers searching through folder after folder.

Harley scratched the back of her neck, "Okay so what are we looking for exactly?"

"Anything regarding the tournament." Cleo said softly as she skimmed the current notes in her hand.

Rich walked over to Cleo and took a pile of papers. "Here. Let me help you."

Cleo looked at Rich with a smile and with a slight red tint in her cheeks. "Th-Thank you." She said quickly looking down at her papers quickly. Harley stood behind Rich with a slight smirk. After a moment, Cleo stopped flipping through the papers and pulled out one. "This is weird." She said squinting at the text, "This paper states all activities and events for this month. The tournament is no where to be seen."

Rich took the paper from Cleo and skimmed over it. "The tournament could just be some last minute event that the principal put together."

"I wouldn't think so," Harley said looking over Rich's shoulder at the paper, "that schedule was printed today."

Rich looked at the date at the bottom of the paper. It did have the current date. "Maybe it's a screw up. This school tends to do that a lot."

"I don't think so." Mikey stated looking at the computer in front of him. He waved his friends over to him, "Come look at this."

The group organized everything back the way it was to make sure that it seemed untouched. The only thing they took was the current schedule of the month. They walked over to Mikey who had his eyes glued to the screen. All three huddled around Mikey. "What did you find?" Cleo asked.

Mikey sat back in his seat and crossed his arms angrily. "I found a whole folder on this computer that has been password locked. The title is 'Tournament'."

"Can you open it?" Rich asked Mikey.

He scratched his chin for a moment and after a couple seconds an idea came to Mikey. He started to type a password in the box. He pressed enter and the folder opened up. Harley looked at the computer in amazement. "How did you do that?"

Mikey laughed lightly, "The schools is funny. It really is. The password was 'chepassword'."

"And you guessed that on your first try?" Harley asked with her mouth wide open.

"Yeah," Mikey said with a grin, "but I didn't think the first one would work."

Rich looked at the folder, "So come on. What's in here? Hack man, HACK!"

Mikey shook his head and stated looking through the various folders within the main folder. "Looks like its data on all the people in the tournament. School records. And," Mikey blushed and looked at Harley, "Criminal records?"

Harley blushed as well and looked from side to side. "Ummm well you see. I was drunk and we though it would be funny to go shrieking in the middle of the night."

"How could I of guessed?" Rich said in a sarcastic, monotone voice.

"Hey that was over a year ago and that part of my life is over."

Mikey slapped both Harley and rich on their arms, "Alright you two. I was just asking a question." Mikey looked through more of the folders and discovered a video file. "Let's see what this is." Mikey clicked on the file and a video screen appeared.

The video itself was silent. All you could see was Simon sitting in a chair looking into the camera. "Greetings to the principal of Chestnut High School," he began as he was sitting properly in his seat, "I am Simon Avphon. I am president of Wizards of the Coast. My company makes many entertaining games for people of all ages." Simon put his hand into his coat pocket and pulled out a Magic card and showed it to the camera. The card was called Hypnotize. The picture was just a spinning vortex of black and white. It was a card that Mikey nor any of the others had seen before. "My company would like to bring a small time tournament to your school in order to test out our new technology systems we've created," Simon put the card up to the camera so all you could see was the picture, "for our card game Magic the Gathering."

Mikey squinted at the card for a moment. "I've never seen that before." Mikey stated to the other. The three of them did not answer. Mikey frowned and turned around, "What don't tell me you guys are actually," Mikey paused as he looked into his friends' blank faces. He looked back at the screen. The card Simon was holding almost looked like it was spinning. Mikey quickly turned his view from the computer to his friends. He grabbed Rich's shoulders and started shacking him. "Rich! Rich! Wake up!" He slapped Rich in the face, but even that didn't work. Mikey quickly took the mouse of the computer and tried to pause the video, but the video wouldn't pause.

Without realizing it Mikey looked straight into the spiral. He looked at it for a moment, but he felt no difference in his body. He looked deeper into the spiral until he felt the same feeling that he had felt about the tournament and about Simon. Suddenly a black fog emerged from the screen. Mikey jumped back and looked up at the mass. It started to take form. It had arms and a head all with no detailed features. Its body was still stuck in the computer. It's pure red eyes looked at Mikey with a devilish glare as it slowly moved its hand to grab him. Mikey was frozen. He looked at the creature of darkness like a deer in headlights. The shadow's hands were inches away from Mikey when all of a sudden a bright light sparkled from Mikey's chest. The light glimmered a bright green. The shadowy creature pulled its hand back from Mikey as if the light hurt it. It screeched and retreated back into the computer. Mikey stood there with a blank look in his eyes. The green light shined even brighter filling the whole room and blinding Mikey.

The next thing he knew Mikey was being shook by Rich. "Mikey, come on wake up," Rich said still shaking him.

Mikey blinked quickly and stood up. He shook the sleep off of him and looked at the three of his friends still staring at him. "What happened?" Mikey asked.

"You fell asleep turning the boring movie," Harley said. "I don't blame you. The movie was boring as hell."

He stood there puzzled. "So there was nothing weird in the video?" he asked looking at the computer with the video still playing.

Rich put his hand on Mikey's shoulder. "The only thing weird was that it put you to sleep. It has all the tech stuff you love so much."

Mikey closed the video and put everything back the way it was. "I think that's enough. Let's get out of here before we get caught." The four made everything the way it was in the room before they entered. They exited through the door after seeing if anyone was in the hallway. Then ran as soon as there was sign of no one coming or going. The four of them quickly dashed through the doors of the auditorium. Mr. Marlo turned around and walked up quietly to Mikey.

"So, what did you find?" Marlo said in a quiet tone.

Mikey shrugged, "Nothing but a paper that was dated for today of a schedule of activities."

"The tournament isn't on it," Cleo said holding up the paper and handing it to Mr. Marlo.

Marlo skimmed over it, "Yep something is up. This paper is made for the principal. It has every event for the next month on here."

"Except the tournament." Harley chimed in.

"Right." Marlo turned to Mikey, "Did you find anything else?"

Mikey shook his head, "Other then a video for the principal explaining Simon's proposal, nothing."

Marlo walked passed the kids and opened the door, "I'll see what else I can find. You guys just take care of the tournament."

The door shut behind Marlo. Mikey sighed and scratched his head. "Well might as well caught the rest of the match that has probably started."

Cleo pointed to the stage, "A little late for that."

The others looked over to the stage. There were two people on either side of the stage, and both had Magic Bracers and holo tables in front of them. On one side of the stage was Rebecca who had fallen to her knees and was holding the floor with shivering hands. On the left stood a tall boy. His hair was blonde and spiky, and his face had a stone look on it. He wore a red, sleeveless shirt over his muscular torso. His pants were a forest green and were very baggy. Around him floated several snake like creatures with sharp, spear-like heads and long, thin claws for arms. The referee raised his right arm and pointed towards the boy. "Winner of the third match, Justin Smith."

Mikey and the others stood there gawking at the stage. They had missed the match and a chance to see how the winner's deck played. Rich poked Mikey's shoulder, "Hey Mikey, what are those creatures?"

Mikey swallowed deeply and took a deep breath. "Those things are called 'slivers'."

Harley crossed her arms, "Slivers are so annoying."

"What are Slivers?" Rich asked again.

"Slivers are nasty little creatures," Cleo said with her voice quivering, "they are a species that works as a collective like an ant colony. You could say they are the ultimate team because they enhance each other's effects with their own as long as they are in play." Rich scratched his head. Cleo scratched her cheek, "Well um… an easier way to say it is that all slivers power all other slivers in play."

"If one has flying they all have flying." Harley said in a snobbish tone.

Rich shook his head, "OH okay, I get it now."

The slivers on staged disappeared along with the holo tables. Justin walked off the stage nonchalantly. Mikey looked down from his position at Justin. At the same time Justin looked at Mikey. As they stared at each other it was as if time had slowed down. Neither took a step, nor did it seem like they breathed. Everything around them was still. All Mikey could feel was an extreme pressure in his chest. After a second the two looked away from each other and the scene returned to normal.

Harley put her hand on Mikey's shoulder. "You okay Mikey?" she asked.

Mikey sighed, but turned around and smiled to his friends. "I'm okay. Come on let's get back to our seats." Mikey ran down the aisle to get to his seat. His smile was bright, but it had an uneasy feel to it. _That creature that appeared in the dream, was it really? Was it even a dream? _So many questions that needed to be answered and new questions that needed to be asked, but all Mikey could think about was the next battle of the tournament and the surprises it held. It was the only thing that kept his mind at peace.


	9. Chapter 8 Open Field

Magic The Gathering

Journey for the Truth

_This Fan Fiction is based off of the card game Magic: The Gathering, owned by Wizards of the Coast, with a twist of, Yu-Gi-Oh owned by __Kazuki Takahashi__. I don't own Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. All card referencing is done from my own personal experience, , or the official Magic: The Gathering rules. Any referencing to Yu-Gi-Oh is minimal. I never read the manga and my only knowledge is from the TV._

_So if u can get past this… Sit back… read… and enjoy… ^.^_

Hope you like long chapters filled with monster and such lol

Note: This is reuploaded.. I think I got all the kinks out of it.

**Ch. 8 Open Field**

Voices chatted around the auditorium as the match ended. Justin and his victory astonished everyone. Rebecca walked always from the stage with her head down in shame. Instead of staying to watch the other battles, she left the auditorium. The others looked as she left. They chattered about how she had no time to counter attack Justin's powerful sliver army. They understood how she could have been embarrassed.

Jenn sighed and looked behind her both ways. Over her left shoulder she saw Mikey walk down the aisle. She turned around to confront him. "Where have you been?" she asked with a slightly hostile tone.

"Sorry," he apologized, as he laughed lightly, "I didn't mean to run off like that I just wanted to see if I could find more information on the tournament."

"You're still hung up on that?" Nessa asked.

Mikey frowned, "It just so happens that this tournament is no where on the schedule for the school. And since everything has to be scheduled in, don't you think that's a little suspicious?"

"It's a little weird now, I will admit," Jenn explained to Nessa, "but I don't think that it is that big of a deal," she said, turning back to Mikey. She grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him to his seat, "Now come on, you missed a great match and I'm sure you don't want to miss Riley's."

Just as Mikey sat down Riley flew out of her seat, "Oh no!" She exclaimed, shaking her head, "It's my turn already. I'm so not ready for this."

Rich and the others had also walked down to where the others were as Riley started to scream. Rich walked up behind Riley and laughed, "Oh come on you'll do fine."

"But, but, my decks aren't as good as everyone else's."

"So," Rich said patting Riley on the back, "mine aren't that good either, but I'm ready for my match."

"I guess," she said calming down a little, "but what if I mess up. I could really use that money for college." Ian turned around and gave Riley and loud slap on the arm. She pulled back, "What the hell was that for?"

Ian pointed at Riley with a serious face, "What's lesson number 3?"

Riley closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them a big smile was on her face, "Always keep your cool and work with what you have."

Ian smiled back, "Now get up there and do what we taught you."

After grabbing her bag, Riley scooted her way out of the row of seats. Before she went up on stage she detoured to Ian and gave him a big hug. "Thank you Ian. I almost forgot."

He pushed Riley off him, "Alright, alright. Don't get too attached. Now go and win."

Riley nodded and went up the stairs. Sean tapped Ian on the shoulder, "Wow, that was really nice," he said.

Everyone else agreed with Sean, but Ian chuckled a little. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I just wanted to get Riley to stop whining." Nessa then slapped Ian on the back of the head lightly. Ian leaded forward and rubbed his head. "Hey, what was that for?"

"For hitting Riley." Nessa said with her arms crossed.

Ian sat back in his seat. "Geez, I'm sorry."

Mikey laughed at the two, "She is right Ian. You didn't have to hit her."

"But it worked," he said pointing with both index fingers at Mikey.

Everyone began to get settled. Rich, Harley, and Cleo took seats in the second row. Jenn saw Harley behind her and turned to Mikey. "Say Mikey," she began, "when you were looking for info on the tournament, who was with you?"

Mikey shrugged, "Just me, Rich, Cleo, and Harley."

Just as Mikey finished that last word he cringed. Jenn looked at him with a look of hatred. "Why was SHE with you?"

"Hey I didn't want anyone else with me. She followed us to the office. I swear I…"

Jenn quickly moved closer to Mikey and gave him a kiss. She smiled at the confused Mikey, "It's okay. I trust you. Though she's still on my list."

Mikey's confusion turned to happiness and he put his arm around Jenn. "Thanks hun. Don't worry, Harley is a good person."

"I am." Harley said butting her head into the couple's conversation, "Like I said I am sorry for before Jenn. I would like to be friends with all of you.

Though she still was unsure of Harley's truth, Jenn did shake her head in agreement. "I agree. Just don't go after my boyfriend."

Harley smiled and crossed her heart with her fingers and promised. Jenn and Mikey turned their sight to the stage. Harley looked at Mikey with a lusting look. I'll just have to wait till you screw up Jennifer.

On stage stood the two girls. Riley had taken her bracer out of the box and put it on, and was in the middle of shuffling her deck. Her opponent was also a girl. She wore purple shirt with a long skirt to match. She had bright, nature red hair, which in the back was in a long ponytail and in the front it neatly cover her forehead. She also had her bracer on her arm and had put the deck inside it. Riley put her deck in the bracer.

The referee took his place and raised his arms, "This match will be between Riley Koomer and Alex Morino. Standard rules as before apply. The winner will be whoever gets their opponent's life total to 0 or if their opponent decks out." He looked at the girls, "If both sides are ready then activate the holo system."

"Holo System online!" Riley shouted activating her holo table. Alex did the same thing.

After they were set, the referee called for the coin flip. Riley called tails and so it was. Riley decided to go first and kept her first hand. Alex kept her seven cards as well. The referee raised his arms again. "Now that both players are ready," he said lowering his arms, "let the match begin."

Riley wasted no time and played a mountains. After the hologram appeared she tapped it and played a card. "I'll play the instant called Death Spark. This card deals 1 damage to you directly." The card appeared in front of Riley. It showed a burst of energy piercing through a skeleton, a deformed man, and a regular man. All three had their mouths open screaming in pain. The card itself produced a ray of light, which shot through Alex's body. It brought her life count down to 19. Riley nodded her head and ended her turn there.

Her friends looked at her proudly. Riley was a timid player who never knew when to attack or do damage. It took a lot advice from Ian and Mikey, but Riley slowly became less timid in a match and more like herself. Mikey smiled as he watched Riley look through her hand plotting out any and all strategies. He leaned over to see Ian and Nessa, "She's really gotten a lot better since she first started."

Nessa nodded in agreement, "Yeah, thanks to our lessons and practice matches."

"Practice?" Ian said with a questioning tone, "I thought we were suppose to beat on her till she got better?"

The crowd's eyes had turned to Alex who drew her first card from her deck. She looked off into space moving her eyes around the room. She looked at her hand and finally played her first land. Behind her appeared a plains. Her face had an upset look on it as she nodded. "I'll end my turn."

Riley quickly took her next card from her deck and placed her swamp down on the table. She smiled as she played a creature. The mana shined as it popped out of the hologram card and onto the stage to take form. The creature it produced was an ugly witch type woman. She had long, dirty gray hair, old raggedy clothes, and a walking stick that looked to have just been pulled off a tree. Riley smiled, "This is Nip Gwyllion. She's a 1/1 Hag with the effect of lifelink."

"So whenever her hag deals damage Riley will gain the life?" Jenn asked Mikey as she turned her attention from Riley's match.

"That's right," Mikey said nodding his head and giving Jenn a hug as a reward for her knowledge, "looks like my teaching paid off a little."

Jenn lightly laughed, "Well that and we were naked the whole time."

Sean clenched his hands and slammed them against the back of Ian and Nessa's chairs. "I knew it!"

"Dude, it's not like it wasn't obvious." Rich rolled his eyes at Sean.

Jenn turned around to Sean, "Yeah. It's not like I was gonna lie."

Mikey turned his head and smiled at Sean. Sean stared angrily at Mikey. "You lucky son of a bitch."

"Oh Sean it's ok," Harley said as she grabbed his clenched hand, "We can walk around naked."

Sean pulled away from Harley's grasp, "Sorry, I prefer no chances of S. with my naked time."

As Harley fell back in her seat sulking, it was already Riley's turn again. Alex had only played a swamp during her turn. Riley played another mountains. She tapped all her land and placed two cards on the holo table. The mana whizzed out of her lands and separated itself. One black and one red mana sphere paired off with each other while the last red mana sphere stayed alone. The two sets of mana started to transform and take shape. The red and black mana turned into vampire woman covered in long black cloth. Her black hair was long and flowed in the wind even though there was no wind blowing. In her hands she held an oddly shaped blade. It was held like a spear, but had the blade and set up of a sword. The lone red sphere took the shape of a small blob of red goo.

Riley pointed to her vampire, "This is Ruthless Cullblade. She's a 2/1 whose power and toughness will go up when your life reaches lower then 10." Riley then pointed to the other creature she summoned, "And that is Bloodhall Ooze. This creature is just a 1/1, but at the beginning of my upkeep it will get a +1/+1 counter if I control a black permanent and another if I control a green permanent. Lucky for you I only got red and black in this deck." Riley skimmed over her cards and pointed to Alex. "Now I'll attack with my Gwyllion!"

The hag of a creature pick up her walking stick and quickly walked over to Alex. She stopped and stood in front of Alex for a moment only until she smacked her with the staff. Alex flinched and stumbled back a little. Riley's creature made it's way back to her. She smiled and ended her turn as the life totals changed to Riley 21 and Alex 18. Alex took her stance again and drew her next card. She played another swamp. She folded her hand and covered it with both palms. She ended her turn with her mana still untapped and unused.

Riley paused and looked confusingly at Alex. "Why haven't you played anything yet?"

Alex turned her nose up to Riley. "What I do with my cards is none of your business."

"I was just wondering," Riley continued as she drew her card, "because it's no fun when your opponent doesn't fight back."

"It's called strategy." She said in a smug attitude.

Riley did not reply to Alex's remark, all she did was frown. Riley pointed to her Ooze, "Remember my Ooze gets a +1/+1 counter because of my black permanent." A coin with "+1/+1" on it appeared and flowed above the Ooze. She played her new swamp bringing her land total to four. Riley tapped one of her swamps and played a card. "I'll play Dark Ritual to add 3 black mana to my mana pool." Riley's black mana turned into the Dark Ritual card. The card itself became 3 black mana. Riley then tapped her two mountains, "I'll also summon fire Servant!" The red mana combined with the black, and then burst into flames. The flames started to join together to form a creature. "Fire Servant," Riley began, "not only is it a 4/3 creature, but it also doubles the power of my red instants or sorcery spells." Riley tapped all of her creatures except for her newest, "Now I'll attack for 5 damage total."

The Cullblade, Gwyllion, and Ooze moved in to Alex. The Cullblade took her blade and quickly slashed it through Alex, the Gwyllion smacked her with the staff, and the Ooze slowly rolled its way over Alex and covered her in goo. Though they there just holograms they still made Alex flinch. The creatures returned back to Riley, and the score became 22 to 13.

Alex shook off the feeling that the holograms gave her. "You done?" Riley nodded and Alex drew her next card. "I'll play a swamp and summon Academy Rector." Alex played her swamp and tapped all her lands. The mana was produced and formed into an old woman. Her hair was gray and she wore a white cloak with a blue pattern. Alex smiled, "You got one turn. So you better make it count."

Riley looked at Alex with a puzzling look. The counter above her Ooze got a "x2" next to it, "My Ooze gets its counter, and now I draw." She picked up her card and played another mountains, bringing her land total to five. She looked at Alex with the same puzzling look. That creature's special effect is when it goes to the graveyard she can search her library for an enchantment card. If she wants me to kill it she could win, but if I don't attack….

For a while Riley thought of what she wanted to do, and Alex grew impatient. She yelled at Riley, "Come on, we don't have all day!"

Riley finally tapped all of her creatures. "I'll attack you for a total of 10 damage!"

All of Riley's creatures took their stances and lunged forward. Alex stood there and sighed, "I'll take the damage." Riley was shocked as she saw all of her creatures hit Alex and return back unscathed.

The life totals changed. Alex was down to 3 and Riley was at 23. Riley began to uncontrollably laugh. "I can't believe it," she said jumping in place and clapping her hands, "I called your bluff. You have nothing."

As Riley was still laughing Alex smiled, "Who said anything about a bluff?"

Just as Alex said that Riley's good mood and smile turned to a dark mood with a frown. "What are you talking about?"

Alex smiled smugly, "End your turn and you'll see."

Her eyes closed as Riley ended her turn. "Good," Alex said as she untapped her land, "now before my upkeep step ill tap all my lands!"

The crowd looked in shock at Alex. "What could she have?" Rich asked Sean.

Sean shrugged, "I don' know, but it spells 'oh shit' for Riley."

The mana was produced and flowed slowly around Alex. "You played great Riley, but you just didn't defeat me fast enough." Alex revealed from her hand a black card, "You know what this is?" Riley looked on with a sad face and shook her head, "Good cuz I love explaining this." Alex played the card, and the black mana combined into it. The picture on the card showed a creature with long nails and yellow skin stabbing some kind of wooden doll with a dagger. "This card is called Kaervek's Spite. It forces the user to Sacrifice all permanents they control and discard their hand, and in return target player loses 5 life." The card forced Alex to put all of her land cards, her creature, and her hand into the graveyard. After all that the card shot a black wave of aura at Riley and her life dropped to 18.

Riley stumbled for a second, but quickly stood straight again. "What was the point in that?" she claimed, "You did 5 damage!"

Alex wiggled her finger at Riley, "Tisk tisk. You should know better than that." Alex revealed her Academy Rector, "Remember her? When this card goes to the graveyard from play I search my library for an enchantment and put it into play."

"I knew you wanted to kill that creature," Riley shouted as she clenched her first, "but what enchantment can you get that will end the game."

Alex started looking through her deck until she finally came across her enchantment. She put it directly into play. The card appeared and it had a picture of lone castle surrounded by plains with clouds in the sky revealing a bright light.

Mikey jumped forward in his seat, "Oh no!" He claimed.

"What is it?" Nessa and Jenn asked simultaneously.

"Barren Glory." Ian replied in a monotone voice.

"Sounds glorious," Sean began, "but I'm guessing there is something I'm missing?"

Mikey turned so all his friends could see him. "Barren Glory is a card where, at the beginning of your upkeep, if you have no cards in your hand, and if you control no other permanents, you automatically win the game."

Everyone looked at Mikey in shock. "No way," Cleo said in a high pitched voice, "is that card even legal?"

Ian nodded to Cleo. Rich started nibbling on his thumbnail, "Damn. So what's this mean for Riley?"

"I guess she will lose." Harley said in a down trotted voice.

"No way!" Mikey said loudly snapping everyone's attention to him. "Riley has one chance." He cupped his hands over his mouth, "You can do it Riley!"

Riley looked at Mikey with misty eyes. She smiled for a moment. She knew she had the power. Her smiling face turned serious when she looked at Alex. Alex began to laugh devilishly, "Looks like it's over Riley."

"Not yet it isn't," Riley yelled making Alex's smile turn to a frown. "It's not your upkeep yet and I still got mana to burn." Riley tapped a mountains, leaving the other four land she had untapped. She played the card from her hand onto the table. It was another Death Spark.

Alex laughed, "What's a little 1 damage gonna do?"

Riley's lips began to form a smile once more, "Remember my Fire Servant. It's special effect makes it so any red instants or sorceries deal double damage. So that is two damage!" The Death Spark shot out a bolt of hot, red lightning to Alex, but just as the bolt was about to hit Alex she threw a card down on the holo table and white mana in her mana pool turned into a bright light. The light stopped the bolt and turned to dust which spread over Alex. Riley stumbled, "Wha… what did you do?"

"Simple," Alex said revealing her white instant that she played, "it's a spell called Hallow. It's effect is to prevent all damage from a spell and turns it into life." Alex's life count went up to 5. She smiled and started laughing maniacally, "That's it, and it's over. I'm sure you were planning on playing another one of those lightning cards on me. Well now you can't cuz I'll live and you will lose."

Her laughter filled the auditorium. She laughed until she had to catch her breath, but as she stopped to breathe Riley began to laugh as well. Alex looked at her with the same confusion Riley gave her, but before she could say a word Riley held up another card from her hand. "It's lucky for me then," she said while waving the card back and forth, "I have another card."

Alex stopped breathing for a moment. "I… I just told you. Your next Death Spark won't do enough damage. I have 5 life now!"

Riley tapped another mountains and threw her card down on the table. "This card is a different kind of spark." The red mana flew in front of her and transformed into the card she played. Alex looked at the card and gasped loudly. The card was Lightning Bolt. Riley laughed, "I figured you would have something to protect yourself in your hand, so I saved the bigger damage for last. Lightning Bolt will deal 3 damage to target creature or player of my choosing, and remember my Fire Servant gives it a double bonus." Riley pointed to Alex with her right index and middle fingers. She brought her fingers to her forehead and saluted her, "Sea ya."

The Lightning Bolt flashed and struck Alex hard, and brought her life total down to 0. Alex screamed during the jolt, "No, I was so close!" The holograms disappeared, and all that was left was Alex banging her fists against the floor and Riley on the opposite side standing in victory.

The referee stepped forward, "Alex's life total has reached 0. Winner of the forth match of the first round, Riley Koomer!"

The crowd cheered for Riley as she stepped down from the stage to rejoin her friends. Nessa gave Riley a slap on her butt, "Good going hon, I didn't think you had it in ya!"

Riley smiled and turned to Ian. She laughed for a moment then gave him a hug. "Thank you for the lightning bolt Ian-san!"

Ian smacked Riley on the arm, "Yeah yeah, just don't hug me again." Riley stepped back half a step and looked at Ian. He looked at Riley and gave her a thumbs up.

The group of friends cheered and laughed about all the exciting things happening. They talked about each match and how the holo system is working beautifully. It was not long until Simon and stood up from his chair to call the next match. It was Sean's turn to play. He stood up holding his box of cards and rushed out of the row.

"Geez Sean," Harley said as Sean moved passed her, "if you're gonna give me a lap dance then at least show me your moves."

Sean turned around and pointed his finger at Harley, "You, my dear, need to stop making advances. It can be very annoying." Harley, the sly minx she is, put her mouth around Sean's finger and began to suck on it. Sean quickly pulled his finger out of her mouth. "Oh come on" he yelled, "you really have to stop doing that."

"Hey," she said in a sexy voice and crossing her legs, "don't you wanna have fun?"

Sean turned to walk to the stairs, but quickly turned back, "My fun is waiting for me on the stage."


	10. Chapter 9 Machine Madness

Magic The Gathering

Journey for the Truth

_This Fan Fiction is based off of the card game Magic: The Gathering, owned by Wizards of the Coast, with a twist of, Yu-Gi-Oh owned by __Kazuki Takahashi__. I don't own Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. All card referencing is done from my own personal experience, , or the official Magic: The Gathering rules. Any referencing to Yu-Gi-Oh is minimal. I never read the manga and my only knowledge is from the TV._

_So if u can get past this… Sit back… read… and enjoy… ^.^_

**Ch. 9 Machine Madness**

The crowd's attention turned to Sean on the left end of the stage who was having a problem putting his Bracer on. Their eyes then moved to the opposite side where Sean's opponent stepped into place. His bracer was placed perfectly on his right arm over his plaid shirt. He wore baggy pants that drug across the floor and almost completely covered his black shoes. He smiled with a cocky smirk as he flipped his long black hair out of his right eye.

Sean finally managed to put his bracer on and slipped his shuffled deck into the slot. "Sorry, it won't fit," he said as he scratched the back of his head.

"That's what she said!" Ian shouted. The auditorium was full of laughter from everyone except Simon, who kept a straight face.

Simon then stood from his chair, "Then shall we begin?" he asked the two boys on stage.

The referee stood in the middle of the stage and raised his arms up once more. "The 5th match of the tournament will be Sean Herlth against Shane Travton. All the same rules apply. If the two are ready they may begin.

The two boys activated their holo systems and Shane used the coin flip. He called tails and so it was. "I think I'll go first." He said with his creepy smiled as he took the top seven cards of his deck and made a hand out of them. He looked at the cards and chuckled, "And as thought I don't need to mulligan."

Sean glared at him as he looked at his less then promising hand. "Oh look my hand is just as good if not better," Sean said with a loud tone, "Alright we are all set. Take your turn."

Down in his chair Rich crossed his arms and sighed. "Not good, the stress and Shane's cockiness is already getting to Sean."

Mikey nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he's got to keep his cool. Shane looked like he's gonna be playing mind games with him."

"You mean he's gonna screw with Sean's mind?" Jenn asked.

"Yeah," Nessa said, "Mind games are a basic thing in magic. Tricking your opponent into thinking one thing, but in turn doing the opposite, or even just faking them out." Nessa looked to Shane with a disconcerting look. "They way he looked and the way he talks just screams 'I'm gonna screw with you'."

Ian cleared his throat, "The only way to get passed someone who messes with your mind is to mess with them back or just keep your cool.

"Sean is already losing it." Riley said as she let out a deep breath.

Mikey stood up from his chair quickly, "Come on Sean! Focus and keep your head on straight!"

Sean and Shane both looked at Mikey as Jenn and Nessa pulled him back into his seat. Sean smiled, "Thanks Mikey, but I can handle this guy."

Shane chuckled, "If you need encouragement from your peanut gallery down there then you'll never have the skill to beat me."

"Then if you want this to continue I suggest taking your turn slow poke."

Shane cringed angrily at Sean's words and took a card from his hand into his free hand. "Fine, I think I'll toy with you with my toys for a while." Shane put his land into play, but it wasn't like any other the other lands that everyone played. It has a solid red background, but everything else was different. "This is Great Furnace. It's an artifact land that produces red mana."

Sean made a sad express and put his palm against his forehead. "Oh great you have an artifact deck too don't you?

"Too, eh?" Shane remarked with his creepy smile, "I guess this is gonna be more fun then I though." Shane tapped his land and took another card from his hand. "Anywho, I'm gonna play Sunbeam Spellbomb." Shane put the card on the holo table. The red mana was made from Shane's furnace. It hovered in front of him then started to take form. The mana transformed from a ball of transparent red energy into another ball. The white orb was the size of beach ball, and it was covered in yellow spikes and designs. Shane bowed to Sean, "It's your turn my good sir," he said sarcastically.

Sean drew his card from his deck quickly, "Please don't fake pleasantries with me. It's very annoying." Shane nodded in agreement. Sean looked over his hand, scratching his head as he looked.

"It's a land," Shane said with annoyance, "just play one. It's not hard."

Sean glared at Shane as he played an island card on the holo table. "A real Magic player is patient and waits for his opponent.

Shane laughed lightly, "And a real Magic player doesn't take a year to play their first land."

Sean swiftly tapped his land for mana, and took a card from his hand and threw it down, "Just quiet down and play the game!" The blue mana from the island turned into a sphere much like Shane's Sunbeam Spellbomb. In fact it was a spellbomb of his own. It was blue in color, and around it were long spikes. Sean scratched his nose, "A spellbomb of my own. Ætherspellbomb." Sean rested his arms at his sides, "And with that, my turn.

"What are spellbombs?" Jenn asked Mikey as they both watched the game, "They seem important."

As he tapped his chin in curiosity, Mikey thought of the best way to explain them. "Spellbombs are artifacts. They really aren't that special. There are five different bombs. Each have two different effects. One of the effects deals with one specific color, and the other lets them draw one card. Though to use the effect of the spellbomb the owner must sacrifice it."

Jenn pondered for a moment. "So the spellbombs are a one time use thing?"

"Yeah," Nessa said shrugging her shoulders, "they are common cards.

Ian wiggled his finger at Nessa, "Remember Nessa even the most common cards can win a battle.

The group began to laugh. Rich came up from behind the two couples, "Yeah, but common cards need rare cards to be really effective."

Jenn looked puzzling at Mikey once again, "Rare and commons, those are types of cards right?"

"Yep," Mikey said to Jenn, "There are three rarities. There's common, uncommon, and rare. I'm sure they are self-explanatory."

Ian tapped Mikey on the shoulder, "What about the other rarity?"

"Mythic rare?"

Everyone looked at Mikey and Ian with a weird look. Rich finally was the first to ask, "Mythic rare? What's that?"

Harley poked her head in, "Aren't those the new super rare cards?"

The two boys looked back to everyone. "Well," Mikey started, "it's said that they are very rare, not seen to often. Only way to get them is in booster packs."

"But they are said to be very powerful." Cleo chimed in.

Riley nodded, "Sounds like they are really important."

Sean called down from the stage, "You know I could use some support."

The group looked up from their conversation. The battle had continued on. Shane had three lands in play. He had a second Great Furnace and a regular plains. On the field Shane had assembled even more spellbombs. A second Sunbeam Spellbomb flowed near the first. The other two that were in play had a different look to them. One was red and jagged, and the other was black and pointy. Sean had just started his third turn as he played a plains. Last turn he played the artifact land Vault of Whispers, which is the equivalent of a swamp. Next to his Ætherspellbomb Sean had played a creature. The creature was an artifact creature. Its shiny, metal body was thin, but still had a strong hold. The spot where its eye seemed to be and around parts of its body glowed blue.

Sean tapped his three lands and his creature at the same time. "Alright," he began pulling two cards from his hand, "I'll play Gold Myr and another Silver Myr!"

Sean put his to cards on the holo table. Mana was pulled from Sean's lands and his myr. The mana branched off into two sets and transformed. One set turned into another one of the robot like creatures already in play, and the other set of mana turned into a creature similar to the other two. This one, instead of glowing blue, glowed a golden color.

"Awesome," Mikey said clenching his hands in excitement, "Sean finished it!"

Ian looked at Mikey in puzzlement, "What is this deck? It's different from his enchantment deck."

"That's right," Nessa said as she nodded, "he did tell me earlier that he finished play testing a deck."

"What kind of deck did he make?" Rich asked.

Mikey turned in his seat so he could talk to everyone. "It's a deck bassed around myrs."

"What's a Myr?" Jenn asked after easing herself closer to Mikey.

"Myrs are artifact creatures. Some are weak, but they serve a bigger purpose."

"Myrs are usually used to produce mana or do some kind of secondary effect," Rich said, "but for the most part they are fodder."

Riley laughed, "Even fodder is important."

Mikey turned forward to Sean, "This deck better work out otherwise you owe me 10 bucks!

On the stage Sean nodded to Mikey, and then turned to Shane. "I'll end my turn."

Shane took his next card. "Looks like your friends really believe in you," He said with a menacing grin.

Sean's body tensed up and smiled back at Shane, "Yeah, my friends are my biggest fans."

Shane laughed loudly. He played a Vault of Whispers himself, "Friends are for the weak. To excel in this tournament you need to be ruthless and cunning!" Shane pointed at Sean as if he were pointing out a criminal in a line up, "Besides, what will happen when you have to fight your friends in another match?"

Sean paused for a moment. He looked at his friends who looked back at him with solemn looks, but after a moment in unison they all smiled. Sean looked back at Shane with a smile of his own. "I'll… just have to beat them too."

Shane looked back at Sean with a bewildered look, "What? But they are your friends."

Sean nodded, "That's right, but it's like Riley said, 'the point is that when we play each other we don't treat it as a friendly competition. We give each other one-hundred percent'. The whole point is that someone wins the tournament and the prize. I'm fighting so that I can get to the top. And even if I fight one of my friends, then I will hope that we do our best. Cuz ya see… a real friend is one you know will always give you one-hundred-percent, even in battle."

"Damn right Sean!" Mikey yelled to him. Everyone in the group cheered for Sean. They cheered for his victory. They cheered because Sean was getting a level head again.

The applause continued until Shane began to laugh. The cheering stopped along with Shane's evil chuckles. "You are indeed a fool Sean." Shane tapped one of his furnaces, his plains, and his vault, and produced the three mana. "I'll show you how a real man wins this game." He pointed to his red spellbomb, "I'll sacrifice my Pyrite Spellbomb, and activate it's special ability to deal 2 damage to you!"

The red mana that Shane had made levitated to his pyrite spellbomb. The spellbomb absorbed the energy, and began to glow red. It began to move closer to Sean. It made it to Sean and hovered in front of him for a moment. Soon it began to crack all over the spellbomb. In just a few seconds the spellbomb exploded onto Sean. Sean, unprepared for the blast, fell back on his butt while covering his torso with his arms. The life count for Sean dropped to 18.

Shane laughed like a hyena, then pointed to his Sunbeam Spellbomb. "Now to put salt on the wound. I'll sacrifice this spellbomb to gain 5 life."

The white mana the bomb need was absorbed. The bomb moved closer to Shane. As it moved closer it began to crack. The spellbomb exploded into a flash of light. This light was different from the pyrite spellbomb. It covered Shane is a yellow aura for a second. His life total went up to 25.

Shane pointed to his last spellbomb. "Lastly I'll use my Necrogen Spellbomb's second effect to draw a card."

His black mana traveled over to the spellbomb. This time the mana changed to a clear energy instead of any of the other colors. It was absorbed by the black spellbomb. Instead of exploding, this spellbomb turned to dust. The dust, however wisped around Shane's bracer. The next card of his deck glowed, and he drew it.

He tapped his last land and played the card he drew, "I'll summon my Myr Moonvessel with my last land."

The land made the clear mana, and began to glow bright. It turned into a Myr. Like the others that Sean had summoned it had a small, robotic body. Unlike the others it was a very bright Myr that glowed with a white light. Shane took another look at his hand, "Well that's all I can do for now, so I'll end my turn."

Sean, who was a bit shaky after the explosion, stood tall on his feet. "So what, didn't feel like making me discard with that last bomb?"

"You weren't worth it." Shane said with his eyes shut and his arms crossed.

"Alright." Sean said as he drew his next card, "no more Mr. Nice guy." He drew his next card and quickly put it into play. "I'll play Academy Ruins!" The land popped up behind him. The card looked like the sunken city of Atlantis. "Academy Ruins is a special land that taps for blue mana, but also allows me to return an artifact from my graveyard to the top of my library."

"Useless to you now. You have nothing in your graveyard."

Sean tapped his tapped all but his Academy Ruins, "I'll show you useless!" He took two cards from his hand and played them on the field. They were identical cards called Myr Enforcer. Two of the three mana spheres combined to become one of the Enforcers, but then only the last remaining mana became the other. The Enforcers were large myrs that stood twice was tall as a regular myr. There bodies were bulky, and looked to be strong.

Jenn looked at the creatures with concern. "Wait, those are the exact same card. How did one cost 2 mana then the other cost 1?

Nessa turned to Jenn, "It's an ability called Affinity."

"What's that?"

Harley poked her head in from behind Jenn, "Affinity is an effect that makes the card cost less for the number of something you have in play."

"Yea," Cleo said in her soft voice, "The Myr Enforcers have Affinity for Artifacts. Sean already had 5 artifacts in play, and it costs 7 to play one."

Riley nodded along with Cleo's explanation, "And once the first enforcer came into play there were 6 artifacts. Meaning that the second one's cost was only 1 to play."

Jenn smiled, "That's an awesome ability," she turned to Mikey, "don't you think so?"

Though she was sitting right next to him, Mikey, along with the three other boys, had tuned out the whole conversation that the girls were having. Jenn sighed and turned back to the group of females. "Well I guess these guys are too taken in by the game."

The girls chucked at the boys, but the boys didn't move a muscle. They were too interested in the game. Sean had ended his turn with nothing else to do, and Shane had begun his turn with his draw and playing a regular plains. He smiled widely, "Now things get fun." Sean looked at him with a straight face trying not to show emotion. Shane didn't care, he tapped all his lands producing a storm of mana from behind him. He took two cards from his hand and placed them on the table. The mana parted. The solo black mana went off on it's own and transformed into a grey, thin man draped in black clothes. The rest of the mana combined together and turned into a tall white man draped in white clothes.

Shane pointed to the man in black, "That is the disciple of the vault. It's weak, but his ability isn't. Whenever an artifact goes to the graveyard I can have target player lose one life." Shane then pointed to the man in white, "This is Auriok Salvagers. Stronger then the disciple, but with an even better ability. For a little mana I can return to my hand an artifact that costs 1 or less."

The expression on Sean's face changed from unhappy to deeply upset. "I see what your getting at."

"Aww man." Mikey said as his hand covered his face in dispair.

"What? What just happened." Jenn asked looking to all of her friends with a questioning look.

Nessa sighed, "Now that Shane has that white creature out he can bring his spellbombs back from the graveyard and sacrifice them again.

"Not only that," Ian followed up, "but whenever an artifact goes to the graveyard Sean will take 1 point of damage from the black one."

Rich scratched his head, "Wow. So does this mean Sean is done for?"

"No," Riley said holding the chair in front of her with a hard grip, "it just means that Sean is on a clock and if he doesn't fight back fast enough he'll lose."

Rich turned to Riley, "So he's doomed?"

"No," Harley said making everyone turn around.

"Do you know something we don't?" Jenn asked Harley.

"No," she said again, "but I do know he wont give up. Just trust him. He'll win."

Everyone was surprised at Harley. She did not make any sexual puns or remarks. She was genuinely supporting Sean. Mikey turned to the stage again. He pointed his hand at Sean like a gun, "And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon, Little boy blue and the man on the moon."

Sean turned from the game and looked down to Mikey. Everyone else chimed in behind him. "When you comin' home dad? I don't know when, but we'll get together then son, You know we'll have a good time then."

Sean closed his eyes and remembered that moment. It was just a few months prior to the tournament. Mikey and Sean were playing a friendly game of Magic waiting for both Ian and Rich for their "Manly Man Time", which was the night when the guys would get together, play magic, and talk about what every other teenage boy talks about. Girls.

Sean played an island from his hand, "So you think this deck is good?" he asked Mikey.

"It's pretty good," he said scratching his chin, "though myrs seem really weak."

Laughing at Mikey's comment, Sean pointed his hand like a gun at Mikey. "And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon, Little boy blue and the man on the moon," he took a card from his hand and placed it on the table where they played, "When you comin' home dad? I don't know when, but we'll get together then son, You know we'll have a good time then."

"Wow," Mikey said in surprise, "looks like I was wrong."

"It's not the strongest creatures that win, but the creatures that can adapt to what you give them."

The two boys laughed together. Mikey stopped for a moment, "Wait, why did you sing 'Cat's in the Cradle'?"

Sean continued to laugh. "Well ya see. I always think of how cool it would be to be an archer sitting in a tree. Having your target in sight, then singing that song as you finish them off."

"Okay," Mikey said with a confused tone, "but why that song?"

"It's a sad fucking song," Sean waved his arms around to convey his emotions, "the dad talking about his son growing up without him, but becoming like him. It's really sad."

Mikey shook his head, "I don't know if it's funny or if it's weird."

"Both is expectable."

"True enough."

Sean looked back at his card then back to Mikey, "You know you love it."

"Every heart filled second of it Sean. Everyone second."

Sean's mind returned to the stage where the battle still continued. He took the next card of his deck and added to his hand. "It's funny," Sean said looking at his card, "weak cards do have some great effects," He looked at Shane directly in the eyes, "but some times you can't beat brute force." He tapped one of his islands and threw the card he drew into play. "I play Thoughtcast!" The card appeared from the mana. It displayed a blue creature that was surrounded by sphere. The mana cost was a total of 5, 4 colorless and one blue mana, but the card had Affinity for artifacts which reduced the cost. "Thoughtcast lets me draw two cards, which will help draw the card I need to destroy you!" He drew his two cards.

As he laughed Shane looked at Sean as if Sean had gone crazy. "Destroy me eh? Cute, but I'm afraid cuteness only works for babies and hookers."

Sean looked towards his friends, then back to Shane. "Like Harley?" he asked as he pointed to Harley with his thumb.

Harley sprung from her seat like a jack-in-the-box, "I am not a whore you jerk! I'm just a little aloof."

Sean rubbed the bridge of his nose, "I meant you whine like a baby. You are the one who just called yourself a whore."

With her face beat red Harley sat back in her seat. Jenn turned back to her, "And he technically called you cute. So you shot down two complements."

Harley turned her head from Jenn, still blushing, "Just watch the game."

The crowd held their breath as Sean looked over his two new cards. He smiled and tapped the rest of his lands, his Gold, and his Silver Myr. The mana flowed from his sources and spiraled around him. He took the card he wanted to play and held it in front of him. Sean asked, "Remember how I talked about the difference between weak and strong creatures?" Shane, his eyes narrow, responded with a nod. Sean raised his card in the air, "Well how about making weaker creatures strong!" He placed the card from his hand onto the table, "I play the Myr Matrix!"

The mana pooled together and morphed into a large blue mushroom type thing. It was covered in piles and had orange orbs throughout its mass. The matrix itself was double the size of Sean and quadruple the size of his small myrs. It took its place next to Sean. As it sat there it began to start operating. The gears inside of it turned making the countless machines inside of it work. It seem to let off an energy all on it's own onto the myrs in play. Sean pointed to his large machine, "The Myr Matrix is an indestructible artifact that gives all myrs a +1/+1 boost." Sean then pointed to Shane who was now less talkative. "I think my Enforcers want a little bit of blood so I'll attack with them." The enforcers began to move from their stand still position. "And remember the boost, so now my two creatures are 5/5's."

The Enforcers stomped across the stage with their large feet. Shane shrugged his arms and laughed, "Well I guess I'll just take the damage." The Enforcers, with nothing in their path, slammed their robotic arms into Shane. The holograms phased through Shane as he stood their still as a stone. The Enforcers retracted their arms and returned to Sean. Shane's life count dropped to 15.

"Yeah," Rich said gritting his hand in excitement, "Sean just took Shane's life down by a hell of a lot."

Harley nodded, "Yeah, two more attacks like that will end this game."

"Don't get to excited," Ian said to the two behind him.

Rich and Harley looked at Ian with odd looks on their faces. Cleo nodded with what Ian said, "Remember that creature Shane has lets him return artifacts that cost 1 or less from his grave to his hand."

"Crap." Harley said biting the tip of her thumb.

"So he can bring back his Sunbeam Spellbomb and gain the life back?" Riley asked Ian.

"Yeah. He's probably gonna try and stall out Sean until he can get his main combo."

"What do you think his combo will be?" Nessa asked Ian.

"Probably something that uses artifacts to be sacrificed and deal damage right to Sean."

"True," Mikey said to Ian, "but look at his lands." Everyone looked at Shane's lands that were starting to untap because of his turn starting. "He has only two sources of white mana right now. His creature's effect needs one white and one colorless mana to return a artifact to his hand. Not to mention his spellbomb needs white mana to let him gain life."

Jenn looked at Mikey intently, "So Shane is limited on how much he can do during a turn?"

"Excellent!" Nessa said energetically, "Sean still can win this yet."

Shane looked down at Nessa and laughed at her, "That's funny." He drew his next card, "Like I wouldn't be ready for something like this," tapped his Vault, took the card already in his hand, and put it on the field, "lucky for me I have this. Chromatic Sphere." The mana turned into a small gold disk that had five smaller orbs inside of it that matched the five colors of mana. "With this I can filter one mana into any color of my choosing."

"That's stupid," Sean said from across the stage, "you already paid one mana for it to be played then another for the use. You'll only have 4 mana no matter what you do now."

Laughing creepily Shane looked back at Sean, "the chromatic sphere also let's me draw a card. So let's hope for your sake I don't get a land I need." Sean stood their quietly and a scolding look. Shane tapped one of his great furnaces, "Now I'll sacrifice my chromatic sphere to turn this mana into white mana!" The mana was aborbed into the sphere. It shattered and out came a white mana sphere. "Now I get to draw my card." Shane looked at his new card and began laughing loudly again. "Sucks to be you," He revealed that he had drawn an Ancient Den. He put in it right into the battlefield.

"Now things get fun." Shane pointed to his Disciple of the Vault, "My sphere went to the graveyard meaning you lose 1 life." The disciple clapped his hands together and then pointed his palms towards Sean. Sean glowed with a black aura. The black energy flashed making Sean flinch. His life count lowered to 17. Shane's grin was as wide as ever. He tapped the rest of his lands. Three white mana came from his Ancient Den and two plains, and one red from his Great Furnace. Including the white mana that Shane's Chromatic Sphere made brought the total mana in his mana pool to five.

Jenn counted with her fingers, "So if the effect to bring them back needs two mana, one being white, one mana to play, and he wants to gain life, then he can bring it back only once and sacrifice it once."

"Yeah," Mikey said with his arms crossed, "but the bad thing is that he'll be back up to 20 life, then the turn after that he'll be able to stall Sean out by bringing himself up to 20 life after each of Sean's attacks." Mikey looked at Shane's evil smile, "He's waiting for something. What is the question."

Shane's laugh began to annoy everyone in the room, but he didn't care. "Now I'll bring back my spellbomb, play, and sacrifice it to gain 5 life." One white mana and the red mana Shane had produced was sucked up by the Auriok Salvagers. The Salvager turned to Shane and shot energy at Shane's graveyard. The Sunbeam Spellbomb come out of Shane's grave, he pulled it out, and played it with one white mana. Then he used other the white to sacrifice it and gain 5 life. His life total became 20. Sean was then covered in the black aura again. His life count went down to 16.

"Now I don't want that last mana to go to waste," Shane took his last card in his hand and played it, "I'll play another Sunbeam Spellbomb." The last mana Shane had turned into another one of his spellbombs. "That will end my turn."

"Wait," Jenn said, "why didn't Shane keep his mana and use it next turn?"

"Because mana drains at the end of each phase out of the mana pool." Nessa said to Jenn. "Mana in the pool can only stay in the pool for one phase then it disappears."

Jenn nodded, "Oh I see." She looked up at Sean "Sean will make it, right?"

Mikey sighed, "He has time, but I don't know what his deck has, so I can't answer."

The stage was quiet for a moment. The crowd didn't make a sound. They only watched as Sean drew his next card. Sean looked at Shane. His face was full of anger. He pointed to Shane and declared his attack. The enforcers attacked as they did the turn prior. Shane's life dropped to 10. Sean ended his turn.

Shane drew his next card. He looked at it in shock. He pondered for a moment. He laughed. "Ok, I think ill change my plan from what it was before." Sean looked at him with disgust. Shane tapped all his lands. Shane played his card, "I'll play Salvaging Station!" The mana he made swirled into one. The machine he made was large like Sean's Myr Matrix. It was a bunch of mechanical claws that stood over a pit of scrap metal. Shane tapped his new card, "I can use Salvaging station to bring back a noncreature artifact card from my graveyard directly to play. I think ill bring the Sunbeam Spellbomb in my graveyard back." The Salvaging Station activated. The arms moved through the pile of scraps. They pulled out a card from the scraps. It was the spellbomb. The card turned into the orb and took its place next to other spellbomb. "I'll end my turn there."

Sean tapped his lands and his gold myr, "Before I untap my lands I'll active my Myr Matrix's ability," the mana was drawn from their sources and taken in by the Matrix. The Myr Matrix rumbled and hummed. A small chunk of metal popped out of the matrix and onto the field. The metal started to move and take form. It was a myr. It looked like the myrs that were already out, but without a glow. "The myr matrix can make 1/1 myr token creatures for 5 mana. Which gets a boost from the matrix itself."

After taking a deep breath Sean untapped his cards. "The same thing, I'll attack with my two Myr Enforcers!" The enforcers attacked once more. If both creatures made contact with Shane the game would be over, but Shane would not let that happen. He put his own myr up to block one of the enforcers. The enforcer's arm smashed through the smaller myr moonvessel while the other enforcer dealt it's 5 damage to Shane, bringing him down to 5.

"Perfect." Shane said scratching his nose with his thumb, "now it's like nothing happened."

Sean Looked at Shane with a curious look, "What do you mean?"

Just as Sean finished his words Shane's Salvaging Station became to move. "When a creature is put into the graveyard my salvaging station untaps so you can use it again." Not only was the station active but a clear mana sphere appeared where Shane's myr had fallen. "Oh and Myr Moonvessel has an effect too. When it goes to the graveyard from the field I add one colorless mana to my pool." Shane's grin was wide once more, "now I'll use my salvaging station to bring back my cromatic sphere. Then I'll use the sphere to make one white mana, and sacrifice one of my spellbombs to gain back the life you took."

In a flash the salvaging station took the chromatic sphere card from the junk pile and brought it to the field. The mana made from the moonvessel was put into the sphere to make white mana. Then the white mana was used on the sunbeam spellbomb so that Shane would get his life back to 10. With three artifacts gone to the graveyard the diciple of the vault used his power bring Sean's life to 13.

Sean stumbled back a few steps. He looked sharply at Shane. _And it's still my turn. Damn he's good_.

"So can I take my turn?" Shane said laughing.

Sean tapped all his lands, "Go to suck on myr you bastard!" Sean screamed as he played two cards from hand. Both were artifacts. The first was called Talisman of Dominance which was just a small disk used to produce mana. The second was a card called Etherium Sculptor which made Sean's artifact spells cost 1 less.

Mikey looked at Sean with dismay, "Shit, he's losing his focus. He should have played the sculptor first. It would have made his Talisman cost one less and he would have saved one mana."

"Come on Sean," Ian yelled to him, "stay calm and focus!"

Sean snapped back to his normal self. "Okay, I'm okay."

"You're far from okay!" Shane said drawing his card from the chromatic sphere's effect. "Just end your turn so I can take mine."

Sean breathed deeply, "Okay. Let's watch you hide behind your bombs and see you stall me out some more."

Shane's grin turned to a frown, "Brat, I'll show you the power of these artifacts!"

"Is Sean trying to mess with Shane?" Riley asked.

"Looks to be that way," Rich said, "though with Shane's defense I'm sure Sean won't be messing with his mind."

Mikey turned around to his friends, "Sean doesn't need to mess with Shane. He just needs a good draw."

After untapping and drawing his cards Shane looked at his hand. "Looks like things are gonna be getting even more fun." Shane used his station to bring back his spellbomb he had lost last turn back to the field. He sacrificed both of them to bring his life total to 20 again. As the two went to the graveyard Sean lost 2 life from the disciple bringing him down to 11. Shane used his Auriok Salvagers to bring his Myr Moonvessel back from the graveyard and then played it. This left him with two lands, both were his great furnaces. It was as Mikey and Ian said, Shane was stalling Sean, but now Sean had less time then they thought.

"Tell ya what," Shane said grinning his creepy smile, "I wont gain life as long as you don't attack me ok?"

Sean looked at Shane. He knew that Shane would keep to his word because he was that cocky, but what would he do in return. No matter what it was Sean needed more time. "Fine, anything for you sweetie pie."

Shane crossed his arms and left his turn at that. Sean began his next turn with a draw. He took a deep breath, "Okay, let's do this right." He tapped three lands to make colorless mana. "I'll summon Lodestone Myr!" The myr appeared from the mana that Sean made. This myr was different from the rest of them. It had a body like a turtle that stood on its back legs. It's body was a copper color with a large green gem in it's chest.

Sean tapped another land to play another Myr. Like his Gold and Silver Myrs it was like them, but it had a black glow to it. "I'll play leaden Myr and end my turn."

"Tisk tisk Sean." Shane said wiggling his finger at Sean with displeasure, "That's a naughty Myr for attacking. What about our agreement?"

"We agreed I wouldn't attack, but I needed to play something. My hand was getting crowded."

"Well then," Shane said taking a card from his hand, "I guess I should follow that too." He tapped his two furnaces and played the card in his hand. The card appeared and it was a picture of an explosion from some kind of machine. "Shrapnel Blast requires me to sacrifice an artifact, but it deals a nice 5 damage to you or a creature you control." Shane pointed at Sean then his Lodestone Myr, "Eanie Meanie Minie," he pointed his finger to Sean, "you, and I think ill just sacrifice my Myr." The Shrapnel Blast card sent out a bolt of lightning to his myr. The myr started to glow red as if it were heating up. The card launched the Myr at Sean who put his arms up to block the virtual blast. The Myr exploded on Sean bringing his life down to 6. With Shane's Myr gone to the graveyard The Salvaging station was active again and the disciple dealt one more damage to Sean bring him down to 5. Shane tapped the station to bring back one of his Sunbeam Spellbombs. "I do have the one colorless mana made from the Myr Moonvessel, but I'd much rather not use it."

Sean brought his arms down from their tensed up position. The shock waves from the fake blast were still enough to make his heart race. "Only a myr sucker would go against his word," Sean said with deep breaths.

Shane's creepily expression turned angry, "Stop calling me that!"

"Why," Sean said regaining his composer, "its not like you can actually do anything to fictional creatures." Shane looked away from Sean with a blush look on his cheeks. Sean's eyes grew wide and his smile finally began to appear, "You're a furry aren't you?"

"I am no such thing!" Shane said outraged by Sean's accusations.

"Oh excuse me," Sean said with his smile growing as wide as Shane's had, "Myrs don't have fur, so that makes you a 'Chromaticy'."

As he drew his card Shane became angrier with Sean, "Quiet you! I don't have to explain myself to you."

Laughter broke out from the audience. Even Simon had begun to laugh a little. Sean laughed making Shane's beat red face even more red. "What you do behind closed doors is fine Shane, but I'm sure skin doesn't fit well with metal holes."

The crowd laughed even harder at Sean's remarks and Shane got more and more furious. Shane yelled at the top of his lungs, "Quiet all of you!"

Sean pointed at Shane, "You stay quiet Screw Fucker! You've been bad mouthing me this whole match. Now I'll pay you in spades."

His friends looked at him with great joy. Sean had finally gained his cool back. He forgot that a game of Magic was supposed to be fun and not stressful. Shane was feeling the stress that he had put on Sean. Everyone was looking at him. Judging him. He knew they were. Shane tapped his station to return his other spellbomb to the field and used his Auriok Salvagers to return his myr to his hand. Then he brought the myr back to the field. He had a plains and his furnaces left untapped again. He let out a long sigh, "Remember I'm the one with 20 life and you're the one at 5. So go ahead and take your turn 'cause it might be your last."

With a light chuckle, Sean began his turn. "Even if I lose at least I'm not a Myr sucker." Before Shane could comment on Sean's remark Sean tapped everything he had that could produce mana except his Academy Ruins and one of his Silver myrs. The 7 mana that was made flashed around the stage lighting up every part. "See the bad thing about your deck is that you also allow your opponent to set up," Sean took one of the three cards from his hand and held it above his head, "It might of looked like I've been just sitting here doing nothing, but I've been assembling enough cards to make it so you never win."

In a flash Sean played the card he held, "I summon the Filigree Angel!" The mana swarmed into one mass. The mass grew wings. The wings were sharp as steel, in fact they were steel. The body took form and attached to the wings was a woman cloaked in a silver veil. Her arms and legs were suited in armor and she wielded a long stave. "Filigree Angel is a 4/4 artifact creature with flying and a rather unique effect." Sean's smile was wide, but not sinister as Shane's was, "When it comes into play I gain 3 life for each artifact I control." Sean looked at his army of artifacts and artifact creatures, "I count 12. I'm no math wiz, but I'm sure 12 times 3 is 36."

Shane took a card from his hand. He looked at Sean with his eyes full of worry and frustration, "Remember you're creature is a spell before it comes into play. Which means it goes on the stack." He tapped his two artifact lands and played another Shrapnel Blast, "So I can play an instant to deal the 5 damage to you before you gain the life. And once your life reaches 0 I'll win!"

Everyone looked at Sean, waiting with baited breath for his response and staring at Shane's Shrapnel Blast which held his Myr Moonvessel in its deadly red aura. Sean laughed, "Guess I can't do anything.

At that moment Shane laughed louder then he ever had, and everyone sighed in disappointment. "Now say goodbye to your life points!" Shane's Shrapnel Blast charged and launched towards Sean. As the ready to explode myr reached Sean and large blue man like being appeared in front of the Shrapnel Blast. Its whole body was armored in a bluish purple suit. It held up two of it's four arms in front of the blast. It's hands glowed bright almost white blue. They myr which had started to explode had begun to become smaller and smaller until it disappeared. Shane looked in awe at the red fragment that were left behind from his Shrapnel Blast. "What…. What did you do?"

Sean laughed and pulled the card up from the table that he played, "Remember when I said I couldn't do anything. Yeah I lied cuz I'm an ass." The card had a picture of the blue mana that had stopped the blast, "This is called Assert Authority. It counters a spell and removes it from the game."

The crowd sighed with relief as Sean's life went up to 40. It would have been 41 but the Myr that Shane sacrificed still went to the graveyard making Sean lose 1 life. Shane looked at the floor in shock, "You… you were holding on to that the whole game weren't you?"

"Yea," Sean said nodding, "I could have used it to get rid of your Salvaging Station, but I figured it would hurt you more if I counted something that would have won you the game."

Shane looked at Sean, his face was twitching with anger. "You cocky bastard."

Sean tapped his Myr enforcers and sent them in to attack, "I'll attack with these creatures." Shane just stood there as the enforcers attacked him, bringing his life to 10. The Myr Enforcers came back, "Guess I'll end my turn with that." Shane drew his next card. He looked at it with a sad look on his face then waved his hand at Sean saying that he passes his turn. Sean untapped and drew his card. "Now for some salt on the wound. I'll use my Æther spellbomb to return my angel to my hand. Then I'll play her again." Sean did just as he said. Because of his own spellbomb going to the graveyard he lost a life, but he gained 33 more bring his life total to 72.

Readying his attackers one last time Sean looked gently at Shane. "Shane don't be sad. It's okay. You know why?"

Shane smiled lightly at Sean, "Why?" he said hopping for a joyful response.

Sean's smiled, "You're use to taking it up the butt from Myrs." Sean tapped his Myrs and dealt the final 10 damage to Shane. His life total dropped to 0.

The holograms faded and the referee appeared from the back, "Shane's life total has reached 0. The winner of this match is Sean Herlth."

Sean jumped up in the air with joy, "Bitches, I won!"

Everyone clapped and cheered for Sean's victory. Shane slumped off the stage in disappointment. Sean jumped off the stage and walked back to his friends. "So, you like the new deck?"

Mikey nodded, "It was a good idea when you showed it to me and it's even better with it's first victory."

Harley climbed over Mikey to get to Sean. She gave him a hug, "That was an awesome match!"

Sean pushed her over him, "I know woman. Now don't touch me again with your STD hands."

Harley turned from Sean and pouted, "Geez fine. I was just trying to be nice.

Everyone else hugged Sean and congratulated him on his amazing victory. Simon announced another ten minute break so everyone could stretch their legs, though all Sean wanted to do was sit down. The match made him exhausted. The ten minutes flew by like it wasn't even there. The next match was set and Simon called the next two to the stage. "Rich Syro and Ella Gretler please prepare your decks and holo bracers. Your match is next."


End file.
